Egyptian authorities have released Christian convert Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo, who spent three years in prison for his Facebook posts about leaving Islam. He was detained for participating in a private online group discussing Christian faith, and his legal case remains ongoing.
Legal advocacy group ADF International announced the release of Abdo, a husband and father of five, on Sunday, noting that he fled Yemen after facing death threats following his conversion and registered as an asylum seeker with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt.
In 2021, local authorities took him into custody, referring to his involvement in online discussions about Christian teachings and Islamic theology as grounds for his arrest. Before this release, Abdo was transferred through multiple detention facilities and experienced poor health tied to his heart, liver and kidneys.
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Within the final six months of his imprisonment, he launched a hunger strike against conditions he deemed unjust.
“I endured many hardships in prison. It isn’t right that a government should tear me away from my family, keep me in these awful conditions, only because of the faith in which I peacefully choose to believe,” Abdo was quoted as saying. “I thank everyone who prayed for me while I was in prison, cared about and followed up on my case, and shared the joy of my release from prison.”
ADF International submitted his case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Although his release has removed him from prison, the legal proceedings against him have not concluded, said the group.
His son, Husam Baqi, expressed frustration at the lack of freedom to believe and speak openly about personal convictions. “It is hideous that individuals are not allowed to believe and express their beliefs freely and are imprisoned or killed for their faith,” he was quoted as saying.
“The arbitrary detention of this husband and father without a criminal trial, and the lack of an opportunity for him to defend himself against alleged offenses, constitutes a severe violation of human rights,” said ADF International’s Director of Advocacy for Religious Freedom, Kelsey Zorzi.
During the detention, Abdo received moral support from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Characterizing Abdo’s treatment as “grotesque,” she called his imprisonment “a surreal example of censorial blasphemy policies in action.” Ali, once widely identified as an atheist, announced last November that she was becoming a Christian. “This is the logical conclusion to a trend that empowers authorities to brutalize innocent people for free expression on social media. From China to Pakistan, from Russia to Syria, from the U.K. to Egypt — free speech must urgently be defended from our age’s resurgent Stalinism.”
Ali, who has been vocal on global rights issues, also faces threats because of her criticisms of the Muslim Brotherhood.
