<
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/11/eff-award-winner-alaa-abd-el-fattah>
"Alaa Abd El-Fattah, 40, is an Egyptian-British blogger, software developer,
political activist, and perhaps the most high-profile political prisoner in
Egypt if not the entire Arab world.
He was instrumental to the creation of the Arab blogger and techie networks, he
ran one of Egypt's longest-running and most-celebrated blogs, and co-founded a
trailblazing Egyptian blog aggregator. In 2005, his
Manalaa blog won the
Special Reporters Without Borders Award in Deutsche Welle's Best of Blogs
competition.
Though his arrests for activism date back to 2006, he has been imprisoned by
the Egyptian government for all but a few months since the 2013 coup d’etat. He
has been repeatedly arrested for alleged crimes such as organizing protests
without authorization; most recently he was sentenced in December 2021 to five
years in prison for sharing a Facebook post about human rights violations in
prison. He began a hunger strike in April 2022, recently passing 200 days, and
is reported to be in failing health. As of Monday, November 7, 2022, he is
refusing water in addition to his hunger strike, increasing fears for his life.
An anthology of his writing—including some pieces smuggled out from jail—was
translated into English by anonymous supporters and published in 2021 as
You
Have Not Yet Been Defeated. A fierce champion of free expression, an
independent judiciary, and government accountability–even at immense personal
cost–he still advocates for democratic reforms, tech freedoms, and civil and
human rights in Egypt and elsewhere."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
