[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13659-13660]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       IMPRISONMENT OF AYA HIJAZI

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to speak about a matter in Egypt, a 
longtime ally of the United States, a country with a rich history and 
culture, but whose people have suffered for years due to corrupt, 
repressive governments and an anemic economy that stagnates under 
excessive statist control. This is the situation despite more than $75 
billion in U.S. economic and military aid for Egypt over the past 50 
years.
  Today, more than 5 years after public protests led to the resignation 
of President Mubarak, followed by the election of the Muslim 
Brotherhood, the military-supported coup that forcibly removed and 
imprisoned President Morsi and thousands of his followers, and the 
election that brought President al-Sisi, a former army general, to 
power, the United States and Egypt are struggling to preserve a long 
history of security cooperation.
  That cooperation is important to the Middle East region as a whole, 
but U.S.-Egypt relations face increasing challenges as President al-
Sisi tightens his grip on power by persecuting political opponents, 
silencing members of the media, including deporting American and other 
foreign journalists who criticize his policies and imprisoning 
representatives of civil society.
  The brutal torture and killing of Giulio Regeni, an Italian student 
and journalist who many believe was an innocent victim of the Egyptian 
police, occurred only 4 months after the Egyptian army attacked a 
convoy of tourists in September 2015, killing 12 and injuring 10, 
including an American who continues to suffer from her injuries for 
which she has received no compensation.
  Just last week, a court in Cairo froze the assets of some of Egypt's 
most prominent human rights defenders in an attempt to silence them and 
put their organizations out of business. The State Department responded 
by urging the Egyptian Government to ease restrictions on association 
and expression.
  These and other incidents have cast a dark cloud over efforts to find 
a common way forward with the al-Sisi government.
  In May 2015, after repeated appeals by me, Secretary of State Kerry, 
and others, the Egyptian Government finally released Mohammed Soltan, a 
young Egyptian-American who was imprisoned, along with his father, for 
nearly 2 years. His crime, if one can call it that, was taking part in 
a public protest. In return for his release, he was forced to give up 
his Egyptian citizenship, a Hobson's choice that no citizen of any 
country should have to make.
  In the meantime, on May 1, 2014, the government arrested Aya Hijazi, 
29 years old and also an Egyptian-American, whose husband, an Egyptian 
citizen, was also arrested, along with Sherif Talaat Mohammed, Amira 
Farag, and eventually Ibrahim Abd Rabbo, Karim Magdi, and Mohammed al-
Sayyed Mohammed, for operating a nonprofit organization called the 
Belady Foundation, which is dedicated to helping abandoned and homeless 
children.
  Backing up for a moment, Aya's mother and father came to the United 
States to pursue master's degrees and because Aya's grandmother, who 
lived in Virginia, wanted her family nearby. Three of Aya's uncles, an 
aunt, and their families live in Houston and are all American citizens. 
Aya grew up here, went to middle school and high school in Virginia, 
and graduated from George Mason University. At George Mason, she was a 
volunteer for Search for Common Ground, a respected peacebuilding 
organization based in Washington.
  After graduating, Aya moved to Cairo where she met Mohammed 
Hassanein, whom she married, and who, like Aya, wanted to be involved 
in social work. Together they founded Belady, which means ``our 
country,'' and which Aya and the members of her organization call ``an 
island of humanity.'' That same year, Aya was accepted to study at the 
American University in Cairo, a prestigious institution that receives 
funding from the U.S. Government, focusing on social work and 
children's welfare, but she and her husband were arrested before she 
began her studies.
  The charges against them are as salacious as they are farcical: 
sexually abusing children and paying them to participate in 
antigovernment demonstrations. Since then, Aya, her husband, and the 
five Belady volunteers have been in prison. After more than 2 years, 
the government has yet to disclose a shred of evidence to support the 
allegations, and Aya, her husband, and the other defendants are still 
awaiting a fair, public trial and a chance to defend themselves.
  Aya Hijazi's case fits a pattern. We have seen it time and again, not 
only

[[Page 13660]]

in Egypt, but in other repressive societies where governments are 
unaccountable and abuse the judicial process to silence dissent and 
intimidate those who are perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be engaged 
in activities that may reflect poorly on the authorities.
  We all want relations with Egypt to improve, just as we want the 
Egyptian people to enjoy the rights and opportunities they deserve. 
With ISIS and other extremist groups infiltrating throughout the Middle 
East and beyond, impoverished Egyptian youths, who have few educational 
and professional options, are particularly vulnerable to ISIS 
recruitment.
  But the more governments curtail the rights and ability of people 
with grievances to express themselves and to seek redress through 
peaceful means, the more likely it is that they will resort to 
violence. This is not a new concept. Anyone who has read the 
Declaration of Independence understands it. It is what ultimately 
brought about the downfall of President Mubarak.
  The Egyptian Government has imprisoned Aya without trial for more 
than 850 days. That alone is inexcusable and a violation of Egyptian 
law, which holds that no one can be subjected to pretrial detention for 
more than 2 years without being released with or without bail. On 
February 3, 2016, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights published 
a petition signed by 25 Egyptian human rights organizations against the 
detention of the Belady founders and volunteers. On May 20, 2016, the 
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization submitted Aya's case to the 
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, seeking her release. On May 
21, Aya's trial date was postponed, yet again, to November 19, 2016. 
Last week, White House officials called for her release.
  Aya has suffered emotionally and physically. She is often prohibited 
from writing to or receiving correspondence from her family, and her 
reputation and that of the other defendants, as well as her 
organization, has been tarnished by unproven allegations. She and the 
others should be immediately released. Absent proof, made available for 
all to see, that they have committed a punishable offense, the charges 
should be dismissed.
  Egypt was among the 48 countries that voted for the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. That is a vote to be 
proud of, but the al-Sisi government's persecution of Aya Hijazi and 
others who have been subjected to lengthy imprisonment without trial or 
whose only offense is to criticize government corruption and abuse or 
to participate in nonviolent social activism makes a mockery of Egypt's 
vote.
  The Universal Declaration, among other rights, includes the 
following: article 9, No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, 
detention, or exile; article 10, Everyone is entitled in full equality 
to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, 
in determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal 
charge against him; article 11(1), Everyone charged with a penal 
offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty 
according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the 
guarantees necessary for his defense; article 19, Everyone has the 
right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom 
to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart 
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers; 
and article 20, Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly 
and association.
  Each of these articles has been violated in Aya Hijazi's case.
  On January 20, 2017, the next President of the United States will 
take the oath of office. That is 116 days from today. The next 
President will immediately face every imaginable challenge, foreign and 
domestic, including the instability and violence in the Middle East and 
North Africa.
  I therefore urge the Government of Egypt, in the remaining months of 
the Obama administration, and in particular President al-Sisi, who also 
has a daughter named Aya and who I believe, if he examined this case, 
would agree that Aya Hijazi does not belong in prison, to recognize 
this opportunity and take steps to enable our next President to 
immediately engage with Egypt in a manner that brings our countries 
closer together, not farther apart. A key step would be the 
satisfactory resolution of the cases of Aya Hijazi, her husband, and 
the Belady volunteers and of United States nongovernmental 
organizations that have been prevented from working in Egypt on behalf 
of the Egyptian people.

                          ____________________