Ashraf Omar: 100 days a prisoner

UPDATE: further to the publication of this statement, Ashraf Omar’s period of pre-trial detention was extended on November 10th – the eighth such additional period since his arrest – and according to his defense attorney, this decision was once more rendered via a video conference call.

CARTOONISTS RIGHTS joins fifteen other human rights, anti-censorship, and cartoonists’ organisations in calling for an end to the “pre-trial detention” of Ashraf Omar, as following a seventh consecutive extension he endures his one-hundredth day in an Egypt prison.

Cairo, October 30^th: Egyptian activist, cartoonist, and translator Ashraf Omar is spending his one-hundredth day in pre-trial detention, following the seventh consecutive extension to his period in custody since he was first arrested at his home on July 22^nd. In the hours immediately after his arrest his whereabouts were unknown until he appeared in front of Supreme State Security Prosecution two days later.

A contributor to the Al-Manassa independent news platform, Mr Omar stands accused of “joining a terrorist group while being aware of its purposes, disseminating and publishing rumours and false news and information, and abuse of social media”, with no presentation of evidence forthcoming. During a six-hour interrogation by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, he was asked whether his cartoons were intended to incite the public. In the days prior to his arrest Mr Omar’s cartoons had focused on the debt crises and electrical blackouts in Egypt.

It is further alleged that police beat Mr Omar at the time of his arrest and threatened him with electrocution. Contact with his friends and family has been limited, with a brief half-hour visit from his wife permitted once every month. He is held at the 10^th of Ramadan Prison’s sixth facility. His period of pre-trial detention has been extended every fifteen days via video conference, in his absence and with no consultation between defence lawyer and client.

According to Human Rights Watch, such hearings were introduced by decree and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, however their continued use “exacerbates longstanding abusive pretrial detention practices and flagrant due process violations, and effectively contributes to covering up abusive detention conditions.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN (the NGO established by the late Jamal Khashoggi) said: “Egypt’s continued imprisonment of Ashraf Omar merely because some thin-skinned regime official was offended by his cartoons about the country’s miserable economic conditions says all you need to know about freedom of expression in Egypt. Egyptian officials are relying on their dirty bag of tricks, like endlessly renewing his pre-trial detention, to shut down artists and writers in the country.”

Ashraf Omar is no different from any other editorial cartoonist, exercising his fundamental human right to freedom of expression and, as a member of the press, making criticisms of government in a form that is inherently non-violent and wholly legitimate. In their response to that criticism, the Egyptian authorities overstep their bounds when they harm Mr Omar’s person and neglect their obligation to protect his human rights.

In bracketing Ashraf Omar’s work with terrorism, physically mistreating him, and ignoring due process in an effort to silence him, Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution sends a chilling message to every cartoonist in the country, and indeed any outspoken critic of the state.

The undersigned organisations call for an end to the needlessly cruel and protracted detention of Ashraf Omar, the dismissal of the baseless criminal charges against him, and for his immediate release and safe return to family and friends.

SIGNATORIES: