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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/25/in-the-dark-political-prisoners-wish-for-light/">consortiumnews.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">In the Dark Political Prisoners Wish for Light</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">January 25, 2022<br></div>
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<p><span><strong><span>Vijay Prashad scans a world full of political prisoners and conveys a message from one of them in Casa Blanca. </span></strong></span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_74111" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-74111" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Carelle-Homsy-Egypt-Liberte-Egypte-2019..jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="365" height="420"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-74111" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Carelle Homsy, Egypt, “Liberté Egypte,” 2009.</span></p></div>
<p><span><strong>By </strong><span><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/tag/vijay-prashad/"><strong>Vijay Prashad</strong></a><br>
</span></span><span><a href="https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/right-wing-offensive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</em></a></span></p>
<p><span><strong><span>F</span></strong>or
over a decade, Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been in and out of Egypt’s
prisons, never free of the harassment of the military state apparatus.
In 2011, during the high point of the revolution, Alaa emerged as an
important voice of his generation and since then has been a steady moral
compass despite his country’s attempts to suffocate his voice. </span></p>
<p><span>On Jan. 25, 2014, to commemorate the third anniversary of the
overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s government, Alaa and the poet Ahmed Douma
wrote a moving <a href="https://www.madamasr.com/en/2014/01/25/feature/politics/graffiti-for-two-alaa-and-douma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">epistle</a> from their dungeon in Tora Prison, Cairo.</span></p>
<p><span>This prison, which houses Alaa and other political prisoners,
is not far from the beautiful Nile and — depending on Cairo’s traffic —
not too far from the Garden City office of <em>Mada Masr</em>, where
the epistle was published. In cities such as Cairo, the prisons where
political prisoners are tortured are often located in quite ordinary
neighborhoods.</span></p>
<p><span>“Who said we were unequalled? Or that we’re an enchanted
generation?” wrote Douma and Alaa, reflecting on the idea that the 2011
uprising was somehow exceptional. “We’re human,” they wrote, “but in the
dark we wish for light.”</span></p>
<p><span>The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information <a href="https://www.anhri.info/?p=23376&lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> that
there have been 65,000 political prisoners in Egypt since the 2013
takeover of the state by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Alaa is being
held on a number of charges, but most of them stem from a frivolous and
malicious accusation that he organized a protest that lasted for about
15 minutes; for those 15 minutes he has been imprisoned for much of the
past decade.</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_74116" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-74116" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Khaled-Hafez-Egypt-Moving-forward-by-the-day-2013-1.-1.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="420" height="335"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-74116" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Khaled Hafez, Egypt, “Forward by Day 1,” 2013.</span></p></div>
<p><span>How many sensitive people across the world are being held in
prisons, charged with ridiculous indictments? The reports that swim
across the internet — many of them from human rights groups based in the
West — are not completely credible since they ignore or downplay the
record of Western governments and pro-Western regimes.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>United States </strong></span></p>
<p><span>The United States government, for example, denies that it holds
any political prisoners despite the fact that there are international
campaigns to free people such as <a href="https://freealvaro.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alvaro Luna Hernandez</a> (La Raza), the <a href="http://freedomtogive.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Holy Land Five</a>, <a href="https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leonard Peltier</a> (American Indian Movement), <a href="https://supportmariusmason.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marius Manson</a> (Earth Liberation Front), <a href="http://www.freemumia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mumia Abu-Jamal</a> (MOVE) and <a href="https://mutulushakur.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mutulu Shakur</a> (Black Liberation Army).</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>“These people are held without just cause, often because they
peacefully exercised their human rights — like freedom of expression —
or defended the rights of others. They may have organized an opposition
party. Reported on abuse and corruption. Taken part in a peaceful
protest.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Those are the <a href="https://www.state.gov/voices-of-political-prisoners/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">words</a> of
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Dec. 7, 2021. In a stroke
of irony, his words apply to dissidents inside the United States as well
as to dissidents from U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and Colombia.</span></p>
<p><span>On Dec, 20, 2021, less than two weeks after Blinken made these
remarks, Egypt’s State Security Court sentenced Alaa to another five
years in prison along with Mohamed al-Baqer and Mohamed “Oxygen”
Ibrahim, who were sentenced to four years each.</span></p>
<p><span>At that time, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-december-20-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in
his weekly remarks that the U.S. was “disappointed” by these verdicts. A
few weeks later, Ahmed Hafez, spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign
Ministry responded by saying, “It is inappropriate to comment or touch
on Egyptian court rulings.” That was the end of that.</span></p>
<p><span>Each year, the U.S. government <a href="https://www.amcham.org.eg/information-resources/trade-resources/egypt-us-relations/us-foreign-assistance-to-egypt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provides</a> Egypt with $1.4 billion in aid, most of it for the military; each year, the U.S. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-hold-130m-egypts-military-aid-over-human-rights-sources-2021-09-14/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">makes</a> a
big fuss of withholding a little more than $100 million of this money
on the grounds of defending human rights, although the money is later
released to Egypt on the basis of “national security.” There is a lot of
huff and puff about “human rights,” but no real concern for the
throttling of democratic processes within the country. “In the dark,”
Douma and Alaa write, “we wish for light.” But in the dark, arms deals
and “national security” set aside considerations of democracy and human
rights.</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_74114" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-74114" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Slimen-El-Kamel-Tunisia-Wolves-2016.-1.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="420" height="420"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-74114" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Slimen El Kamel, Tunisia, “Wolves,” 2016.</span></p></div>
<p><span>The Arab Spring – whose center was the stone slab in Tahrir
Square – lies in ruins. Tunisia, where the entire process began,
struggles with a government that has suspended its democratic
institutions in the hope of tackling the social crisis that predates the
Covid-19 pandemic but has been exacerbated by it.</span></p>
<p><strong><span>Tunisia</span></strong></p>
<p><span>On Jan. 14, the anniversary of the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, the Workers’ Party of Tunisia led a <a href="https://madaar.org/%d8%ac%d9%8a%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%8a-%d9%84%d9%80-%d9%85%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%82%d9%8a%d8%b3-%d8%b3%d8%b9%d9%8a%d9%91%d8%af-%d9%88%d8%b6%d8%b9-%d9%8a/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">march</a> from
Tunis’ Republic Square to the Central Bank with the slogan “No
populism, no fundamentalism, no reactionaries.” They opposed the old
regime of Ben Ali, the Islamists and now the “populist” presidency of
Kais Saied. The Workers’ Party made the point that the economic crisis,
which was exacerbated by the International Monetary Fund and that
provoked the 2011 revolution, remains unaddressed. The United Nations
has also <a href="https://www.tap.info.tn/en/Portal-Politics/14099005-ohchr-expressed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expressed</a> its concern about the use of internal security forces in Tunisia to crack down on basic political rights.</span></p>
<p><strong><span>Morocco</span></strong></p>
<p><span>In Morocco, the situation is dire. The political regime
centered around King Mohamed VI is called the Makhzen (a term that means
“warehouse,” referring to the place where the king’s subordinates would
be paid). </span></p>
<p><span>The king is worth between $2.1 billion and $8 billion in a country where nearly <a href="https://www.ondh.ma/fr/actualites/webinaire-sur-la-dynamique-de-la-pauvrete-au-maroc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1-in-5</a> people live below the poverty line and where social distress has <a href="https://madaar.org/%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b9-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%ad%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b6%d8%b1-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b4%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ba%d8%b1%d8%a8-%d8%a8%d9%8a/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> during the pandemic. In 2015, after the February 20 movement had shaken up society in 2011, I visited the Rabat office of the <a href="http://amdh.org.ma/contents/display/487" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moroccan Association for Human Rights</a> and
heard a realistic briefing about the lack of basic political freedoms
in the country. Like brave human rights advocates in other countries,
the Moroccans I met listed the names of people who had been unjustly
arrested and laid out a picture of the difficulty of building “a state
of truth and law” in the country.</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_74113" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-74113" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Mohamed-Melehi-Morocco-Pink-Flame-1972..jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="364" height="420"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-74113" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Mohamed Melehi, Morocco, “Pink Flame,” 1972.</span></p></div>
<p><span>At the time, I heard about the case of Naâma Asfari, who had
been detained in 2010 and was serving a 30-year sentence for his
activism over the occupation of Western Sahara. His case and that of
Khatri Dadda, a young Sahrawi journalist arrested in 2019 and sentenced
to 20 years, caught the eye of Mary Lawlor, the UN’s special rapporteur
on the situation of human rights defenders. In July 2021, Lawlor <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27244&LangID=E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>,</span></p>
<p><span>“Not only do human rights defenders working on issues related
to human rights in Morocco and Western Sahara continue to be wrongfully
criminalized for their legitimate activities, they receive
disproportionately long prison sentences and whilst imprisoned, they are
subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and torture.”</span></p>
<p><span>Pictures of these two men and countless others are often found
in the offices of human rights organizations and lawyers who work
tirelessly on their behalf. These are people like Alaa and their
comrades in similar struggles as far away as Colombia and India.</span></p>
<p><span>During the past few years, the Makhzen has tried to strangle
Morocco’s main party of the left, the Democratic Way. It has repressed
and defamed Democratic Way activists who try to organize in public, and
it is <a href="https://annahjaddimocrati.org/ar/7931" target="_blank" rel="noopener">preventing</a> the party from using public premises to hold its fifth Congress this year. </span></p>
<p><span>Despite the obstacles, Democratic Way activists have started the new year by <a href="https://annahjaddimocrati.org/ar/7931" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling</a> for
a united struggle of popular forces and has demanded that freedoms and
human rights be respected and that political prisoners be released,
including members of the <a href="https://www.newsclick.in/moroccans-take-street-protest-jail-sentences-rif-movement-leaders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rif Movement</a>,
which has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to demand social
rights and justice after a fish vendor was killed by a city trash
compactor in 2016. The Democratic Way also opposes the repressive
Makhzen and supports the self-determination of the Sahrawi people.</span></p>
<p><span>Since 1975, the Moroccan state has <a href="https://panafricanvisions.com/2022/01/morocco-drives-a-war-in-western-sahara-for-its-phosphates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annexed</a> Western Sahara, but it has little legal basis for this occupation. In August 2020, the U.S. government inked the <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Abraham Accords</a>,
which meant that Morocco and the United Arab Emirates recognized Israel
(and effectively the permanent occupation of Palestine) in exchange for
arms deals and U.S. recognition of Morocco’s seizure of Western Sahara.</span></p>
<p><span>The Polisario Front (the Sahrawi people’s liberation movement) opposed these accords as <a href="https://madaar.org/%d8%aa%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%b1-_-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ba%d8%b1%d8%a8-%d8%aa%d9%81%d8%a7%d8%b5%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%a3%d8%b2%d9%85%d8%a9-%d8%aa%d9%87%d8%af/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tensions</a> grew
along the Morocco-Algeria border. The Democratic Way also took a
courageous stand against the accords that earned it increased repression
from the Makhzen.</span></p>
<p><span><img src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/20220119_omar-radi-and-Alaa-Abd-El-Fattah_IG-1.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="420" height="420">Reporters Without Borders <a href="https://rsf.org/en/morocco-western-sahara" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranks</a> Morocco
as 136 out of the 180 countries on its 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
One of the reasons for this poor measure is the violation of the freedom
of expression of Moroccan journalists and writers like Omar Radi, Maati
Monjib, Hicham Mansouri and Abdel-Samad Ait Ayyash. Fatima al-Afriqi <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/04/world-press-freedom-day-tyranny-is-not-destiny-freedom-has-to-be-achieved/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>powerfully
about the threats that she faced: “The message received, O guards with
your machine guns behind sandbags of memories and dreams of my skull … I
understood you who inspect my weaknesses and possible mistakes. I raise
the white flag and declare by defeat, and I will withdraw from the
battlefield’. She continues her brave vigil.</span></p>
<p><span>Omar Radi, like Alaa, sits in his cell in Oukacha Prison in Casablanca. He sends us a <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/04/world-press-freedom-day-tyranny-is-not-destiny-freedom-has-to-be-achieved/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">message</a>:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>“Tyranny is not destiny; freedom has to be achieved, even if it
takes a long time. Besides, if my time has come to pay the price on
behalf of this wretched new generation, which was born before the Old
and the so-called New Regime, then I am ready to pay it with all
courage, and I will go to my fate with a calm, smiling heart with a
relaxed conscience.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Omar, Alaa, Fatima, Ahmed, and other political prisoners around
the world will not go to their fate. We will stand up beside them. We
are here. As long as we are alive, we will stand.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Vijay Prashad, an Indian historian, journalist and commentator, is the executive director of</strong> <strong>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</strong> <strong>and the chief editor of</strong> <strong>Left Word Books.</strong></span></p>
<p><span><em>This article is from</em><em> </em><a href="https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/right-wing-offensive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</em></a><em>.</em></span></p>
<p><span><em>The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of </em><strong>Consortium News.</strong></span></p>
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