Egypt dies in prison for video clips against al-Sisi: director Shady Habash is the latest victim of the prison where Patrick Zaki is located

“I’m slowly dying, day after day. Prison kills you like this. Try to resist first, then don’t go crazy after being thrown into a cell and forgotten, not knowing if and when you will leave. I need you and your help, now more than before. ” Shady habash, 22-year-old Egyptian director and videomaker, died this morning inside the infamous Tora prison, on the southern outskirts of the Cairo, where he had been locked up two years ago.

On October 26, Shady had managed to send a message to his loved ones and close friends and the juice of his words is a desperate cry for help. On the official causes of Habash’s death there are mixed news and it’s not clear if he was infected by Covid-19 or died for other reasons. For two months now, the government of Cairo has decided stop processes and especially the visits and contacts of family members, especially for i political prisoners.

In those words, a sincere appeal and a j’accuse to the prison authorities and the Egyptian government itself. Shady Habash had been arrested by order of the President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who did not like the way his figure had come out of a music video of which Habash himself had been the director and producer. The song had been written and sung by Ramy Essam, very popular Egyptian singer (one of the cultural leaders of the revolution of Tahrir Square in January 2011), meanwhile exiled to Sweden: was called Balahaliterally “Date”, a derogatory term in Arabic that has since then become the nickname of the Head of State.

A sarcastic nickname that did not fall on al-Sisi and his reaction was immediately harsh. The video clip, in fact, was broadcast in the first months of 2018, during the electoral campaign-farce of the presidential elections (all the main candidates withdrew before the presentation, the only contender was the leader of a small party loyal to him) after which al-Sisi was confirmed to the presidency with 94% of the votes.

Unable to lay hands on Essam, authorities raided everyone who had participated in creating and broadcasting the video: seven people, including Habash, the manager of Essam’s Facebook page, and other figures. near him “I am still in prison,” Habash wrote again in the October 26 message, “every 45 days I end up in front of a judge who confirms me for another 45 days of detention without even looking at my face or reading the documents of My case”. Please do not forget me“

Tora’s prison and its special section. scorpion, dedicated to crimes of thought, are the worst place to spend detention. All the unwanted characters to the regime, from the former president, passed through the inhospitable cells of the prison. Mohamed Morsi, who died in 2019, for the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid ‘Shawkan’and today oppresses everyone political prisoners. In particular, those who ended up handcuffed after the spontaneous protest against the regime on September 20. Between these Alaa Abdel Fattah, one of the souls of the Tahrir Square uprising, arrested in the time of the former president Hosni Mubarak (disappeared two months ago) and again last fall.

Abdel Fattah is also concerned about health due to one hunger strike started a few weeks ago. So far, complaints from her family, especially her sister, have been futile. Mona seif. in Egypt and in Italy there is finally anxiety about the conditions and the future of Patrick Zaki, the young Egyptian student who attended an Erasmus course at the University of Bologna until January.

Returning home for a few days of vacation, he was arrested on February 7 due to some posts posted on Facebook last September about protests against al-Sisi across the country. After the first procedural phase a mansoura, his hometown, Zaki was transferred to Tora and his family members have not heard from him for almost two months.