CPJ leads joint letter to Egyptian president urging release of writer Alaa Abdelfattah
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes #pressfreedom worldwide.
In a joint letter led by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 50 prominent human rights leaders, Nobel Prize laureates, writers, and public figures have called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to grant a presidential pardon to Egyptian-British writer Alaa Abdelfattah.
The letter, sent Tuesday, highlights that Abdelfattah has spent nearly a decade behind bars and now faces an additional two years in detention — despite provisions in Egyptian law that should have secured his release last September. His continued imprisonment has not only defied the expectations of his family and human rights organizations but also violates Egyptian law, given the time he has already spent in pretrial detention.
The signatories urge el-Sisi to reunite Abdelfattah with his family, particularly as his mother, Professor Laila Soueif — a respected 69-year-old Egyptian academic — has endured over 150 days of hunger strike in protest of her son’s unjust continued detention. Her health has now severely deteriorated, leading to hospitalization. Doctors have warned that she faces an “immediate risk of sudden death” if she continues fasting.
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Authorities must credibly investigate the March 2 shooting of journalist Kristian Zavala, who is the third press member to be killed in Mexico this year, despite his 2021 request for federal protection, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
Zavala, founder and editor of the Facebook-based news outlet El Silaoense MX, and another man were shot by two unknown assailants on a motorcycle while driving along a highway in the central Mexican city of Silao, Silao authorities said. The killers’ motive is unknown.
“The shocking killing of Kristian Zavala is the third fatal attack on journalists in Mexico this year, cementing its catastrophic record as the deadliest nation in the Western Hemisphere for the press,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “These killings are fueled by impunity, which Mexican authorities must do much more to root out.”
Zavala was enrolled in a protection program overseen by the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, a federal government agency that has come under criticism for not offering sufficient safeguards.?
Zavala, who covered local politics and security, requested government protection in 2021 after receiving threats, Mexican media reported. CPJ was unable to confirm whether the 28-year-old journalist was still under state protection at the time of his death. The State Attorney General’s Office is investigating the killing.
Mexico has long been one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists and ranked fourth on CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, which measures where murderers of journalists are most likely to go free. A 2024 report by CPJ and Amnesty International found that Mexico’s Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists consistently failed to protect the press.?
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