The New York Times: Families in Egypt pay the price for their children's freedom abroad

"Outside Egypt, critics speak freely and inside families pay the price," writer Declan Walsh launched his report in the New York Times from Cairo. He said that officials in Egypt imprisoned relatives of prominent critics of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in exile.

The writer cited an example of the latest attempts by the Egyptian regime to silence all opposition abroad when, in March, an Egyptian media activist and famous blogger Abdullah al-Sharif cut a shocking video clip of an army officer cutting a finger of an unknown young man and setting him on fire, in the most shocking footage from Sinai, where the Egyptian army is fighting what they call Islamic militants in a hidden war.

But days later, security men stormed the homes of his relatives in the coastal city of Alexandria, and arrested his two brothers on terrorism charges.

Now Sharif lives outside the country, safe from the oppression of the Egyptian security forces, while his two brothers are in a high security prison outside Cairo.

Walsh referred to what human rights groups say that the Egyptian government, which stifled almost all internal criticism, is now trying to silence critics abroad by imprisoning their relatives in Egypt, and that since the beginning of last year, it detained the relatives of about 15 opponents in exile, where security men smashed the front doors and confiscated the money Passports forced parents to denounce their children on television and detained parents and brothers, many of whom were charged with terrorism and imprisoned.

"What happens is only collective punishment," said Omar Majdi of Human Rights Watch, who since 2016 documented raids on the families of exiled opponents. He stated that at least 20 relatives were arrested and tried.

Walsh referred to what Al-Sharif said that officials in Egypt told him that if he stopped his cash broadcast on his YouTube page, they would release his brothers. "I feel very uncomfortable and I have lost my appetite. My mom and dad always call me and they cry on the phone and ask me to stop. I don't know what to do," he said.

The writer suggested that Egypt's rulers have long used such methods against the families of suspected drug traffickers and jihadists, but with President Sisi escalating repression in recent years, he has expanded his focus to target the families of exiled opponents, journalists, and intellectual figures.

He mentioned a recent case of an exiled actor, Muhammad Shoman, in which he sent an emotional appeal on Facebook from Turkey to release his brother and son, who he said were imprisoned in revenge for his role in a movie that highlighted the police brutality.

Walsh added that Al-Sisi inside Egypt imprisoned his opponents and largely conquered the media, and his intelligence services acquired stakes in the largest private television networks, banned more than 500 websites, and even watched the famous TV series that the Egyptians are currently wrapping around during the holy month of Ramadan.

However, the writer added that the regime's iron grip on Egyptian media and similar materials broadcast by all private and loyal channels may have inadvertently helped enhance the image of the media and bloggers residing abroad.

At the end of his report, he cited what the lecturer on Middle East politics at Dartmouth College Ezzedine said: "The regime offers a gift to its Islamist opponents." "If all the TV channels say the same thing and all the newspapers have the same title, you need at least someone who mocks the president or the system. They find this in these media outlets," Fischer added.