Latest news with #JohnCasson
The Independent
4 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Egypt travel advisory needed for ‘police state' says former British ambassador
Leading figures, including former ambassador to Egypt John Casson, are urging the UK government to update its travel advice for Egypt due to the continued detention of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. A letter to The Times, signed by Casson and others, calls on the government to use all available tools to protect British citizens, including cautioning against travel to Egypt in official travel advice. The letter argues that British citizens who encounter issues with the Egyptian police state cannot expect fair treatment or adequate support from the British government. UN investigators have stated that Abd El-Fattah, imprisoned in Egypt since 2019, is being illegally detained and should be released immediately. Signatories, including Richard Ratcliffe, highlight the incompatibility of Egypt's friendly relations and economic dependence on British tourism with its alleged abuse of British citizens.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Government urged to upgrade travel warning for ‘police state' of Egypt following ongoing detention of Alaa Abd el-Fattah
Leading figures have called on the UK government to update official travel advice to caution against travel to Egypt as British-Egyptian democracy activist and writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah remains in detention. The former ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, is among the signatories of a letter to The Times today (May 29), urging the government to 'deploy the full range of tools it has to protect British citizens'. The letter added: 'This includes official travel advice that should caution against travel to Egypt, making it clear that a British citizen who falls foul of the police state in Egypt cannot expect fair process, nor normal support from the British government.' UN investigators have said that Mr Abd el-Fattah, who has spent nearly a decade imprisoned in Egypt, is being detained illegally and should be released immediately. Mr Abd el-Fattah has been held in Egypt since September 2019, and in 2021, he was handed a five-year prison sentence on charges of spreading false news for re-sharing a social media post. The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), a panel of independent human rights experts, found that his imprisonment was illegal based on the lack of a warrant and reasons for his arrest, the lack of a fair trial, his being arrested for exercising freedom of expression, and the fact that his detention was discriminatory. The Times letter continued: 'Egypt can't have it both ways. It pretends to be a friend and depends on flows of British tourists to keep its economy afloat. It needs to discover that kind of partnership is not compatible with abusing our citizens, and blocking our embassy from carrying out the most fundamental consular actions on their behalf.' Signatories of the letter include Richard Ratcliffe, campaigner and husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained in a prison in Iran for six years. Responding to the UNWGAD ruling, Ratcliffe previously said: 'The crime is not Alaa's; the criminals are those still holding him, and provoking his family to desperation. For our family, our WGAD ruling was also a relief: we thought it would mark an end to the UK government's prevarication and the beginning of firm action on Nazanin's case. In the end, it did. 'But for Alaa's family, time is so much shorter. The ruling needs to be implemented now. The law is clear, but so is the heavy cost of continuing to ignore it. The current Foreign Office (FCDO) travel advice, which was last updated on 20 May and current on 29 May, advises against all travel to parts of Egypt, including North Sinai and within 20km of the Egypt-Libya border (except for the town of El Salloum, where it advises against all but essential travel). The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to areas including the Ismailiyah Governorate east of the Suez Canal, the Hala'ib Triangle and the Bir Tawil Trapezoid. It does not warn against travel to any of the main tourist destinations in Egypt, including Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Alexandria and the two Red Sea resorts of Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former ambassador calls on UK to advise citizens against travel to Egypt
The former British ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, has urged the UK to advise its citizens against travelling to Egypt, in response to Cairo's refusal to release dual British Egyptian national Alaa Abd el-Fattah. A UN panel found on Wednesday that Fattah had been held arbitrarily in jail since 2019, but Egypt was refusing to give the UK consular access – let alone release him. His mother has been refusing food in protest at his detention. Casson, ambassador to Egypt from 2014 to 2018, said: 'Egypt pretends to be a friend of the UK and is dependent on British visitors to keep its economy afloat. We have to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy.' He added that the Foreign Office had worked its way through 'the normal diplomatic playbook' to secure his release, but this 'only revealed Egypt fobbing us off and trying to push us around'. Casson told the BBC: 'It is a police state in Egypt. It is violent and vindictive and it is abusing a British citizen in Alaa Abd el-Fattah. 'It has tortured him and kept him in prison on bogus charges and is causing a lot of distress to his family, but it is also abusing the rights of the British government to do its normal business and it is blocking our embassy from its most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble.' He said the advice should be to caution against travel to Egypt –and not just due to this specific case. As a former ambassador to Egypt, he said 'if a friend or family came to me today and asked 'Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?', I would have to say: 'You are taking a real risk. If you get into any kind of difficulties, if you post the wrong thing on social media even, there is no guarantee your rights will be protected. There is no guarantee of due process and we cannot even be sure the British embassy will be able to visit you in the normal way''. He recalled during his period as ambassador 'a Cambridge university student was tortured to death over several days in a prison cell. There was a British woman who went on a beach holiday and found herself in a prison cell for a year due to carrying too many pain killers in her luggage.' There had also been a string of abduction cases. The travel advice, he said, should be as frank as the advice given to British people thinking of travelling to Hong Kong and Iran. He believed the case required political will, and had to be a defining issue in the UK relationship with Egypt. Casson was speaking after co-signing a letter with the Labour peers Lord Hain and Lady Kennedy calling for the British government to advise British nationals not to travel to Egypt. Cash-strapped and heavily indebted, Egypt is deeply reliant on tourism, which contributed approximately $31bn (£23bn) to its GDP in 2023 and is a provider of nearly 9% of the total jobs in the country. In 2024, Egypt welcomed a record-breaking 15.7 million tourists, surpassing the previous year's record of 14.9 million. More than 500,000 British people visit Egypt annually. Current Foreign Office travel advice suggests some parts of Egypt such as Sinai are at risk of terrorism, and also says making critical comments about the government can cause difficulties. There are however no warnings in place about the main tourist spots. Casson has long been critical of the UK's inability to find the right levers to persuade the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to release Fattah, but the UN report is another pressure point. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has twice rung the Egyptian president to ask for Fattah's release, while the UK national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, and the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, have both raised the case in meetings with their opposite numbers. It has also been raised by UK diplomats at the UN human rights council, but so far even a preliminary right to see Fattah in jail has been denied by British diplomats on the basis that Egypt does not recognise his dual citizenship. He was charged with spreading false news about Egypt, and has been a long-term critic of the government repression.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Brits planning holidays in Egypt warned of 'real risk' of travelling to 'vindictive police state' by ambassador after UK citizen was locked up in hellhole prison
Britain's former ambassador to Egypt has urged the government to review its travel advice to the country amid growing outrage over the continued detention of a British-Egyptian activist. Alaa Abd-El Fattah, a vocal critic of the Egyptian government, has been detained since September 2019. In 2021 he was sentenced to five years in prison on 'spurious charges' of 'broadcasting false news'. Authorities refused to release him last September, ignoring the two years already held in pre-trial detention. He was held at the hellhole Tora Maximum Security prison before being moved in 2022 amid backlash against the dire conditions. John Casson, who was the British ambassador to Egypt between 2014 and 2018, wrote to The Times denouncing the 'bogus charges' against 'democracy writer' Mr Fattah and calling on the government to act and warn others travelling to the country. The government must 'deploy the full range of tools it has to protect British citizens', he wrote in the letter cosigned by Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws and Lord Hain, the former Middle East minister, among others. He argued the Egyptian government has 'ignored calls' from the international community for accountability over the alleged 'torture' endured by Mr Fattah in prison, and stressed that his case is 'not isolated'. Mr Casson said there was a responsibility for the government to 'make clear' that a British citizen travelling to 'the police state in Egypt cannot expect fair process, nor normal support from the British government '. 'Egypt can't have it both ways,' the letter argues. 'It pretends to be a friend and depends on flows of British tourists to keep its economy afloat. 'It needs to discover that kind of partnership is not compatible with abusing our citizens, and blocking our embassy from carrying out the most fundamental consular actions on their behalf.' Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on February 28 to discuss, among other things, Mr Fattah's case and press for his release. The leaders agreed to speak again soon, No10 said. Rights groups today joined the call for the government to reconsider its travel advice for Egypt after the UN this week determined that Mr Fattah had been unlawfully imprisoned. James Lynch, founding co-director of human rights organisation FairSquare, told MailOnline: 'The British travel advice for Egypt makes no mention of the absence of proper due process in Egypt's courts, and the fact that the British embassy cannot guarantee that it can access you in jail. 'This is irresponsible and means the hundreds of thousands of British tourists who travel to the country each year don't have the information they need. He said that the 'gross injustice' of Mr Fattah's case 'must prompt the Foreign Office to urgently review its advice for Egypt'. At present, the FCDO advises against travel to parts of Egypt including the Egypt-Libya border, North Sinai, the northern part of South Sinai, the eastern part of Ismailiyah Governate, the area west of the Nile Valley and Nile Delta regions, and the Hala'ib Triangle and the Bir Tawil Trapezoid. It advises checking travel advice before travelling to Cairo and popular tourist hubs on the coast, such as Hurghada. MailOnline approached the Foreign Office for comment. Mr Casson's letter in The Times noted that the government does already 'spell out' concerns in travel advice for Iran and Hong Kong. The FCDO observes that the political environment in Egypt is 'restrictive' and that foreign nationals involved in political activity or activities critical of the government 'may be at risk of detention or other measures'. Commenting on the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) decision on Wednesday, Amnesty International UK urged that Egyptian authorities 'have an obligation to release' Mr Fattah 'immediately'. Sena Atici, Campaigner for individuals at risk at Amnesty UK, said: 'As the UN Working Group's decision makes unequivocally clear, Alaa is a prisoner of conscience, who shouldn't have spent a single minute behind bars. 'His cruel and arbitrary imprisonment beyond his sentence is intolerable and the situation for his family is desperate. 'Keir Starmer should use this ruling as an opportunity to renew pressure on President Sisi to release Alaa, including through further direct calls.' Amnesty assesses that Mr Fattah has been held in inhumane conditions at a maximum security prison, where they are held in small cells without beds, hot water or personal possessions. Proceedings before emergency courts are inherently unfair as their verdicts are not subject to appeal by a higher tribunal, according to Amnesty International. The defendants were also denied their right to adequate defence as their lawyers were prevented from communicating with them in private and photocopying the casefiles, indictments and verdicts, a statement read. Human Rights Watch, citing interviews with inmates, lawyers and a former prisoner, alleges that authorities have banned inmates from contacting their families or lawyers for months at a time, held them in degrading conditions and beaten them. Denied hygienic items, humiliated and confined for weeks in cramped 'discipline' cells, HRW assesses that treatment 'probably amounted to torture in some cases'. Interference with medical care 'may have contributed' to deaths within the prison, they claim. Numerous foreign nationals have faced detention and alleged abuse in Egyptian prisons in recent years. Last year, a court heard that a Cambridge student who was tortured to death after being mistaken for a foreign spy in Cairo in 2016 had his bones broken and was slashed across his body with a razor by four Egyptian security officers. Giulio Regeni, 28, was beaten with sticks and suffered severe burns, the prosecution's medical consultant told during the trial against the Egyptian intelligence officers last April. It was revealed the Italian student showed major signs of extreme torture including cuts and bruises from severe beatings and more than two dozen bone fractures - among them seven broken ribs, all fingers and toes, as well as legs, arms, and shoulder blades. Regeni's body also had multiple stab wounds on the soles of his feet, slices in his skin made from a sharp object suspected to be a razor blade and several cigarette burns. Medical examiner Vittorio Fineschi, who conducted the autopsy on the Italian researcher said he found on the corpse 'almost all the tortures carried out in Egypt'. Regeni, from Fiumicello, a town near Udine in northeastern Italy, was tortured so badly that his mother Paola Deffendi said she could only recognise him 'from the tip of his nose'. He was subjected to the horrific abuse at the hands of four Egyptian secret service agents who Italian prosecutors allege were involved in the killing, but have been unable to track them down to issue summons. Laura Plummer, a shop worker from Hull, was jailed in October 2017, accused of smuggling painkillers into the country. She was sentenced to three years in prison for taking 290 Tramadol tablets into the country. Her family maintained that she was taking the painkiller – which is legal in the UK but banned in Egypt – for her partner Omar Saad, who suffered from back pain, and didn't know that what she was doing was illegal. Ms Plummer was released in January 2019 after serving 13 months of her sentence, eventually changed to drug possession. Mr Fattah's mother, pictured right with an Egyptian activist, has been on hunger strike since 2024 Mr Fattah is a blogger, software developer and political activist who has been vocally critical of the government in Egypt, where he was born. He has been arrested several times in recent years, including for his role in the 25 January Revolution in 2011, which led to the toppling of then-president Hosni Mubarak. Laila Soueif, the mother of Mr Fattah, has been on hunger strike since September 29, 2024 - the day he was due to be released - over her son's detention. On May 19, she resumed daily visits to Downing Street in an effort to press Keir Starmer and his government to urgently secure the release of her son from prison. Ms Soueif has been on a partial hunger strike of 300 calories a day, taken by liquid nutritional supplement.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Popular summer holiday destination 'police state' warning
A former British ambassador to Egypt has called for the Foreign Office to caution against travel to the country amid fears British nationals face an increased risk of arrest in a country that is popular with holidaymakers and travellers. John Casson, who was British ambassador to Egypt between 2014 and 2018, described the country as a 'police state' which is 'violent and vindictive', when he spoke on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday. His comments follow a ruling by a UN panel that Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news, is being illegally detained by the Egyptian government. READ MORE: Turkey 'highly risky' alert as Foreign Office updates UK advice READ MORE: I visited the most beautiful town with amazing views — and it's just two hours from Liverpool The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) said Mr Abd El-Fattah was imprisoned because of his political views. 'This is a police state in Egypt: it's violent, it's vindictive,' Mr Casson told the Today programme. 'It's abusing a British citizen, Alaa Abd El-Fattah – tortured him. It's kept him in prison on bogus charges. It's causing a lot of distress to his family. 'But it's also abusing the rights of the British Government to do its normal business, and it's blocking our embassy for the most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble. 'And that's why, with other parliamentarians today… I'm calling now for our Government to use all the tools it has to protect not just Alaa Abd El-Fattah, but all British citizens in Egypt. And that means, especially now, our official travel advice needs to caution against travel to Egypt.' Mr Casson joined political figures, including Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws and Lord Hain, the former Middle East minister, to urge the Government to review its travel advice for Egypt in a letter published in The Times on Wednesday. He said the case of Mr Abd El-Fattah is not isolated as any British national travelling to Egypt faces arrest and illegal detention. He told the BBC: 'After four years as ambassador in Egypt, if a friend or family came to me today and said, 'Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?', I would be saying you're taking a real risk. 'If you get into any kind of difficulties, you post the wrong thing on social media even, there's no guarantee (of) your right to be protected. 'There's no guarantee of due process, and we can't even be sure that the British embassy will be able to visit you or support you in the normal way.' He added: 'If I just think back to the four years I spent in Egypt, there was a Cambridge University student who was tortured to death over a period of several days in police cells. 'There was a British woman who went on for a beach holiday in Egypt, and found herself in in prison for a year because she had too many painkillers in her luggage. 'There was a string of child kidnap cases where British children were abducted by their estranged Egyptian parents, and the Egyptian authorities did not give protection to the rights of those children or the rights of their British families.' Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni was abducted and killed in Cairo in 2016. Italy accused Egyptian police officers of killing him, a charge Egypt denied. In 2017, British national Laura Plummer was sentenced to three years in an Egyptian prison for taking 290 Tramadol tablets into the country. Mr Casson told the BBC: 'Of course, our civil servants are always cautious about offending a country like Egypt, and that's why we're really saying this: this needs political will. 'It takes political will and a readiness to take real action and say that Egypt can't have it both ways. Egypt pretends to be a friend. 'It depends on British visitors to keep its economy afloat, and we need to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy. We can't have business as usual.' Last week, 100 MPs and peers urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to 'deploy every tool' available to help free Mr Abd El-Fattah.
