An electronic campaign to save an Egyptian threatened with death in Saudi Arabia

Abdel Rahman Mohamed-Cairo

Wassam, demanding an immediate intervention to save the life of an Egyptian engineer from the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, has received wide interaction during the past two days on social networking sites in Egypt.

According to videos recorded by the engineer Ali Abu al-Qasim, who has been living in Saudi Arabia since 2007, his wife and a number of activists, Ta'izira's death sentence was handed down by the Saudi authorities after he was convicted of smuggling a drug shipment from Egypt to the kingdom.

Abu al-Qasim confirms his innocence Sarda in the video, which detailed the reasons for his innocence, how he was exploited by a drug smuggling gang, when he provided assistance in clearing papers at customs for one of the equipment that was smuggled drugs.

He stressed that the Egyptian authorities submitted documents proving his innocence after arresting the real smugglers, and information about their collaborators in the Kingdom, but the Saudi authorities did not pay attention to those documents and evidence.

Since Abul Qasim was sentenced and confirmed in mid-2018, his wife Ibtisam Salama has been striving to overturn the verdict and release him.He has made several appeals, including an appeal to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to intervene to prevent her husband from being executed.

From time to time, the case of the Egyptian engineer is gaining media attention and public interaction, but with the news circulation of the death penalty by the Saudi Supreme Court and near its execution, the solidarity department in the communication sites has expanded, and the #Save_Mohands_Ali_Abu_Kasem has published the most frequently used tags on Twitter in Egypt.

Facebook solidarity publications have also been very popular, with one being redeployed more than 7,000 times in less than 24 hours.

A number of solidarity with the Egyptian engineer accused the authorities of their country of not being serious in intervening to save his life, inaction for fear of damaging Cairo's close relations with Riyadh.

In June last year, Egypt's Minister of Immigration and Egyptians Abroad, Nabila Makram, said her country was seeking a moratorium on executions in Riyadh, demanding a re-investigation of the case. Permanently.

Interaction with Abu al-Qasim's case has spread to Saudi Arabia, where Saudi activists have shown solidarity with him and his wishes to show his innocence and release, while others denounced campaigns to pressure their authorities to release those they see as a "convicted criminal" of drug trafficking.