The arrest in Egypt of American-Egyptian dual citizen Amir Nagy, who founded an academy for children’s development in Nasr City, should be a wake-up call to the Trump administration on the questionable effectiveness of its quiet, behind-the-scenes advocacy on human rights in Egypt.
Authorities held Nagy incommunicado for two days before charging him with belonging to a banned political group, said Aya Hijazi, the founder of Belady Foundation, created to help Egypt’s street children, and a former political prisoner herself.
Even good news in Egypt, such as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s May pardon of over 300 prisoners – including Ahmed Etiwy, a US citizen rounded up in a 2013 protest – is coupled with repression. That same month, al-Sisi’s security agencies arrested activists Wael Abbas, Hazem Abd al-Azim, and Amal Fathy on charges that seem to be solely based on their social media posts and peaceful activism.