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Among the things Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump are scheduled to discuss during their April 3 meeting in Washington is Egypt's fight against terrorism. Egypt's government has broadly interpreted this fight to include jailing dozens of journalists, including photographer Abdelrahman Yaqot, who a few days before el-Sisi arrives in Washington will have checked in at the local police station, as he must every month to meet the terms of his release from prison.
Yaqot, who spent two years in Alexandria's overcrowded Borg al-Arab Prison on trumped up terrorism charges, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he fears police officers will send him back to jail when he goes.
"I have been out [of prison] for two weeks, but I still can't live among people normally," Yaqot, a former journalist for the news website Karmouz,told the CPJ. "I am trying to remember what normal life is like."
On March 21, 2015, Yaqot approached a police station in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to investigate rumors of a bomb threat to the station. Police arrested him on the spot and accused him of plotting to blow up the station on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After nearly two years behind bars, Yaqot told CPJ that he no longer works as a photojournalist for fear of being rearrested.
"I am technically still in prison," he said. "I can't adapt."
Meanwhile, at least 25 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt on December 1, 2016, when CPJ last conducted its census of journalists jailed around the world. Only Turkey and China imprisoned more journalists. Despite these clear violations of Egyptians' human rights, the United States has earmarked $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt this year. In one of his first phone calls with a head of state upon taking office, Trump reaffirmed to el-Sisi his commitment to funding Egypt's fight against terrorism.
Yet terrorism is the pretext that Egypt's government has used to jail most of the journalists behind bars. Among them are:
President Trump this week told el-Sisi in a call that he looks forward to building off the "positive momentum" in the countries' bilateral relationship.
But with Abdel Nabi, Al-Fakharany, Jaafar, and dozens of other journalists still behind bars, and with Yaqot and countless others censoring themselves to avoid prison, any "positive momentum" in the U.S.-Egyptian relationship has clearly left many of Egypt's journalists behind.
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Among the things Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump are scheduled to discuss during their April 3 meeting in Washington is Egypt's fight against terrorism. Egypt's government has broadly interpreted this fight to include jailing dozens of journalists, including photographer Abdelrahman Yaqot, who a few days before el-Sisi arrives in Washington will have checked in at the local police station, as he must every month to meet the terms of his release from prison.
Yaqot, who spent two years in Alexandria's overcrowded Borg al-Arab Prison on trumped up terrorism charges, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he fears police officers will send him back to jail when he goes.
"I have been out [of prison] for two weeks, but I still can't live among people normally," Yaqot, a former journalist for the news website Karmouz,told the CPJ. "I am trying to remember what normal life is like."
On March 21, 2015, Yaqot approached a police station in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to investigate rumors of a bomb threat to the station. Police arrested him on the spot and accused him of plotting to blow up the station on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After nearly two years behind bars, Yaqot told CPJ that he no longer works as a photojournalist for fear of being rearrested.
"I am technically still in prison," he said. "I can't adapt."
Meanwhile, at least 25 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt on December 1, 2016, when CPJ last conducted its census of journalists jailed around the world. Only Turkey and China imprisoned more journalists. Despite these clear violations of Egyptians' human rights, the United States has earmarked $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt this year. In one of his first phone calls with a head of state upon taking office, Trump reaffirmed to el-Sisi his commitment to funding Egypt's fight against terrorism.
Yet terrorism is the pretext that Egypt's government has used to jail most of the journalists behind bars. Among them are:
President Trump this week told el-Sisi in a call that he looks forward to building off the "positive momentum" in the countries' bilateral relationship.
But with Abdel Nabi, Al-Fakharany, Jaafar, and dozens of other journalists still behind bars, and with Yaqot and countless others censoring themselves to avoid prison, any "positive momentum" in the U.S.-Egyptian relationship has clearly left many of Egypt's journalists behind.
Among the things Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump are scheduled to discuss during their April 3 meeting in Washington is Egypt's fight against terrorism. Egypt's government has broadly interpreted this fight to include jailing dozens of journalists, including photographer Abdelrahman Yaqot, who a few days before el-Sisi arrives in Washington will have checked in at the local police station, as he must every month to meet the terms of his release from prison.
Yaqot, who spent two years in Alexandria's overcrowded Borg al-Arab Prison on trumped up terrorism charges, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he fears police officers will send him back to jail when he goes.
"I have been out [of prison] for two weeks, but I still can't live among people normally," Yaqot, a former journalist for the news website Karmouz,told the CPJ. "I am trying to remember what normal life is like."
On March 21, 2015, Yaqot approached a police station in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to investigate rumors of a bomb threat to the station. Police arrested him on the spot and accused him of plotting to blow up the station on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After nearly two years behind bars, Yaqot told CPJ that he no longer works as a photojournalist for fear of being rearrested.
"I am technically still in prison," he said. "I can't adapt."
Meanwhile, at least 25 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt on December 1, 2016, when CPJ last conducted its census of journalists jailed around the world. Only Turkey and China imprisoned more journalists. Despite these clear violations of Egyptians' human rights, the United States has earmarked $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt this year. In one of his first phone calls with a head of state upon taking office, Trump reaffirmed to el-Sisi his commitment to funding Egypt's fight against terrorism.
Yet terrorism is the pretext that Egypt's government has used to jail most of the journalists behind bars. Among them are:
President Trump this week told el-Sisi in a call that he looks forward to building off the "positive momentum" in the countries' bilateral relationship.
But with Abdel Nabi, Al-Fakharany, Jaafar, and dozens of other journalists still behind bars, and with Yaqot and countless others censoring themselves to avoid prison, any "positive momentum" in the U.S.-Egyptian relationship has clearly left many of Egypt's journalists behind.