Egypt: Organization warns against deportation of Christian Yemeni asylum seeker

The Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights warns against the deportation of Abdul-Baqi Saeed Abdo to Yemen because of his declaration of conversion to Christianity, and expresses fears that he is in grave danger.

Abdul-Baqi Saeed Abdo is a Yemeni asylum seeker. Victim of an attempted murder in his country, and after the murder of his wife, following his conversion to Christianity and that of his family, he took refuge in Egypt. But accused of "joining a terrorist group knowing its objectives and despising the Islamic religion", he was placed in pre-trial detention.

THEEgyptian Initiative for Human Rights (EIPR) warns against his deportation to his country because of his declaration of conversion to Christianity, and expresses his fears that he is in grave danger.

Abdul-Baqi Saeed was arrested at his home in the Faisal neighborhood on December 15, 2021, at 2 a.m., following a search of his home and the seizure of three laptops. He was then referred to the Supreme State Security Prosecutor's Office, which investigated him on December 23, after he had been detained for eight days.

EIPR recalls that Egypt is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which prohibits the forced expulsion or return of refugees in accordance with Article 33, which states that "no State party may not expel or return a refugee in any way whatsoever to the frontiers of areas where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or of his political opinions.

According to this principle of non-refoulement, no one should be returned to a country where he or she would risk being persecuted, tortured, treated in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner or other irreparable harm.

The EIPR calls on the Egyptian authorities to stop the process of deporting Abdel-Baqi Saeed and calls for his release and the dropping of all charges against him.

MC

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