Tag: egypt

Egypt Seeks Death Penalty for Christian Convert Who Refused to ‘Renounce Jesus’ as U.S. Sends $1.3 Billion in Military Aid

Egyptian prosecutors have asked a terrorism court to impose the maximum penalty on Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek (also spelled Saeid Mansour Abdulraziq and known as Said Abu Mustafa), a Christian convert from Islam on trial before Egypt’s First Criminal Terrorism Circuit in Badr, in eastern Cairo.

In a November 3, 2026 statement, the Office of Said Fayez – Lawyers and Legal Consultants said the Public Prosecution presented its closing arguments and requested “the maximum penalty prescribed by law.” Abdelrazek’s fiancée, who provided the statement to The Gateway Pundit, said prosecutors are seeking 25 years in prison or death.

The court adjourned the case to December 8, when the defense will present its final arguments. According to the statement, the defense team will respond to the prosecution’s submissions, examine the evidence, and outline “the legal and substantive grounds of the defence.”

Under Article 12 of Egypt’s Anti-Terrorism Law (Law No. 94 of 2015), anyone who founds or leads a terrorist group faces death or life imprisonment. Article 13 sets the death penalty for financing a terrorist group. A life sentence in Egypt is 25 years in prison.

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Egyptian Parliament Authorizes Troops to Defend Saudi Arabia

The Egyptian Parliament on Monday voted to give President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the authority to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia, where they would help the kingdom repel attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen.

Sisi requested the authority to deploy troops last week, offering assurances that the deployment would be purely defensive in nature. Officials in Sisi’s administration have stressed that Egyptian soldiers would remain on Saudi soil and would not be directly involved in attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen.

On October 18, Sisi chaired a meeting of his National Defense Council, which includes Egypt’s top ministers and military officials. The Council passed a resolution of solidarity with Saudi Arabia and pledged to support its security and sovereignty.

The Egyptian constitution stipulates that military deployments outside the national border require approval from Parliament, and on Monday, two-thirds of Egyptian lawmakers voted to authorize the mission to Saudi Arabia. A notable exception was the caucus from Egypt’s Social Democratic Party, which abstained from the vote because it said not enough details had been provided about the cost and objectives of the mission.

The Saudi government has yet to make an official request for Egyptian support.

Egypt is part of a loose four-way alliance with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Egypt known as the “Regional 4” or “R4,” and Cairo is seen as a close ally and potential future member of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which was signed by the other three R4 governments in August 2026.

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Egypt’s Sisi Declares His Presidency Will End In 2030

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has declared that his presidential term will end in 2030 and that the question of his departure from office is now “settled and will not be discussed”.

Sisi, 71, said on Saturday during a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy that “the Egyptian constitution would not be touched”. He is currently serving a six-year term.

“The year 2030 will mark the end of my presidential term. This matter is completely settled,” Sisi said.

“I will not leave the Egyptian state until it is brimming with its own people capable of shouldering responsibility.”

The president added that the military academy was creating a new generation of leaders.

Sisi came to power in 2013 after leading a military coup that deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Rights groups estimate that over 60,000 prisoners of conscience are held in Egyptian jails, including more than 1,000 women.

Many prisoners, including former President Morsi and several opposition figures, have died as a result of medical neglect and other inhumane prison conditions, according to rights groups.

Sisi’s latest comments come at a turbulent time in the region. Last week, Egypt’s foreign minister reaffirmed the country’s support for Saudi Arabia in its conflict with Yemen‘s Houthis, saying that “Gulf security is integral to Egypt’s national security and our solidarity with Saudi Arabia.”

Egypt has also been involved in military conflict with its neighbors. Last week, an Egyptian air strike killed 72 civilian workers at a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border.

Egypt backs the Sudanese Armed Forces in its war against the UAE-backed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

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Video Shows Abdul El-Sayed Stating He Has ‘Dual Citizenship’ in Egypt and US

Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit audience in 2016 that he has “dual citizenship” in the United States and Egypt, according to a previously unreported video obtained by our Chuck Ross. It’s the second time that we know of that El-Sayed has made the claim, one that his campaign now says is not true.

“I carry dual citizenship, and I grew up spending most of my summers in another country where I understood what it meant not to have the right to self-govern,” El-Sayed, whose parents emigrated from Egypt to the Detroit area in 1978, said at a GlobeMed conference that took place while he served as the city’s health director. He went on to say he was questioned by Egyptian police during one of those summer visits for publicly cursing Egypt’s president at the time, a story he still tells on the campaign trail a decade later.

“The newly revealed 2016 video marks at least the second time El-Sayed has publicly claimed to have Egyptian status,” Ross writes. “His academic résumé stated in 2014 that he was a citizen of the United States and Egypt, the Free Beacon previously reported.” El-Sayed’s campaign told us at the time that he was mistaken about his citizenship status, which he “tried to verify … later on in life” but was “unable to find any documentation.”

“El-Sayed has expressed mixed feelings about his ancestral homeland. He has criticized secular Egyptian presidents like Mubarak and Abdel el-Sisi, while praising its Islamist leaders. In 2012, he signed an open letter alongside ‘leaders of the Egyptian community’ that urged the repressive Muslim Brotherhood and then-president Mohamed Morsi to ‘purge the media and police’ in order to solidify the Islamist group’s power. El-Sayed has referred to Bassem Youssef, an antisemitic pundit who claims Israel was behind 9/11, as a ‘fellow Egyptian.’ ‘He’s hilarious,’ El-Sayed said of Youssef.”

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Egypt Arrests, Disappears Entire Newsroom Over ‘Fake News’ Allegations

Egyptian authorities have detained the entire newsroom of one of the country’s only independent media outlets in a move that rights groups have denounced as a “first” and an “alarming escalation” on free speech.

On September 28 and 29, security forces raided the homes of the six journalists – Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel – who constitute the entire team working for Matsada2sh (Arabic for “Don’t believe”). The arrests bring the number of journalists detained in Egypt to 24.

“It is a first in Egypt: an entire newsroom behind bars,” press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said, criticising the authorities for failing to reveal the journalists’ whereabouts.

“It’s a violation of the Egyptian Constitution, even though this is common practice. Journalists detained in Egypt are often forcibly disappeared for several days before being officially charged and brought before a court,” the group added.

According to multiple accounts by rights groups, the officers confiscated the phones and laptops belonging to the journalists as well as those of their family members during the raids. They also did not present any arrest warrants and refused to disclose where the journalists would be held.

The interior ministry later published a statement confirming the arrests and accusing the journalists of running an unlicensed platform that is “run from abroad” and of spreading “fake news”.

It also accused its journalists of being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition group that has been outlawed under the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since 2014.

One of the platform’s editors was previously detained in 2023 over similar allegations but was released two days later.

Matsada2sh was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking outlet that corrects misleading or inaccurate information by various sources, including those by official government sources or opposition media.

“Independent journalism is critical in any free society and Egyptian authorities’ failure to allow free exercises of expression to thrive flies in the face of a purported commitment to dialogue, transparency, anti-corruption, and regional leadership,” more than 80 rights groups and independent media outlets said in a statement.

“The crackdown on the Matsada2sh platform and these arrests are alarming escalations on independent media and freedom of expression that cannot be allowed to stand.”

One of the founders of Matsada2sh, Abdelrahman Mansour, who is not based in Egypt, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the families do not know where the journalists are.

“Everyone on this team knew the risks when they went to work every day, but it’s unacceptable for the government to make false accusations and forcibly disappear journalists just because they’re afraid of a free press,” AP quoted Mansour as saying. “Their families are worried, we’re worried, we just want them released unharmed.”

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Popular Egyptian Show Host Sentenced to Death by Hanging Over Drug Trafficking Gang Involvement

A Cairo criminal court sentenced television host Sarah Khalifa, 39, and 11 other defendants to death by hanging on Saturday after convicting them of forming an organized gang that imported materials used to manufacture synthetic drugs for trafficking.

Khalifa has more than two million followers on social media.

Nine co-defendants received life sentences. Seven of the 28 people charged were acquitted.

State newspaper Al-Ahram said the death sentences were unanimous and issued after Egypt’s Grand Mufti gave the opinion required by law.

Prosecutors said more than 750 kilograms of narcotics and materials were seized.

They cited statements from 20 witnesses and electronic evidence including messages, photos, and video.

Khalifa was arrested in Cairo in April 2025. She has denied the drug charges and shouted that she was innocent when the verdict was read.

Al Jazeera reports:

Khalifa denied the charges and told investigators she had “never smoked a cigarette in my life” and declared her innocence.

Egyptian media reported that she was weeping and crying during the session, asking the court for mercy: “Please listen to me, sir. My parents raised me well; they are people who pray, and I don’t need drug money”

Prosecutors said the gang imported raw materials from abroad to manufacture synthetic drugs, storing them in residential properties. Members divided roles between procurement, manufacturing and distribution, authorities said. Investigators seized unlicensed firearms and ammunition alongside the narcotics.

The prosecution said the group used a residential property to store the materials and manufacture the drugs.

Khalifa hosted the Al-Mehwar crime and security program Mission Impossible. She also operated a cosmetic clinic and an events company.

Her lawyers said they will appeal.

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Egyptian Police Arrest Four Christians Who Complained About Being Beaten By Muslims

A Coptic Christian church in Egypt endured an attack by an Islamic mob earlier this month — resulting in the arrests of four Christians who endured beatings.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a church faced a horde of Muslims — mainly women and children — throwing stones at the building on July 8.

Some of the believers were injured, while the priest’s car and the church building were damaged.

Tal Al-Quiblya, a province in upper Egypt, did not have a church for many years, but Christians started “organising prayers and regular masses in their homes on a rotating basis,” per the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

“The varying distances involved in traveling to different homes affected some residents’ ability to attend regularly,” the organization added.

“Consequently, the villagers decided to designate an existing building located amidst their homes as a church — a move made with the knowledge of both security authorities and the village’s Muslim residents.”

Their efforts to coordinate the worship of the Triune God appeared to incense the Muslim locals.

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Hall of Records theories explode as CIA doc mentioning ‘temple under Sphinx’ found

The location of an ancient library believed to lie beneath Egypt‘s Great Sphinx has long been one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries.

Now, a resurfaced CIA document from 1952 is reigniting speculation surrounding the legendary Hall of Records after a cryptic reference to a ‘temple under Sphinx’ was found inside a Cold War-era photographic inventory.

The Hall of Records legend has fascinated the public for nearly a century, with some claiming the mythical archive contains ancient texts, maps and evidence of a lost civilization that predated recorded history. 

The 10-page CIA file, dated November 20, 1952, is titled ‘Presentation Form for Graphic Material’ and appears to catalog 11 rolls of black-and-white photographic negatives taken between July and December 1950.

Rather than an intelligence briefing, the document appears to be a simple archival inventory. 

But believers say the phrase ‘Temple under Sphinx’ stands out because it is not a standard archaeological description commonly used today.

One X user posted: ‘So the CIA knows about the temple UNDER THE SPHINX. Still want to call BS on the Hall of Records?’

While no hidden temple has ever been confirmed beneath the Great Sphinx, archaeologists have long known about the ancient Sphinx Temple, a structure located directly in front of the monument on the Giza Plateau. 

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Egyptian Christian Could Face Death Penalty on Terrorism Charges for Criticizing Islam

Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek (also spelled Saeid Mansour Abdulraziq) is an Egyptian Christian convert from Islam currently on trial in Cairo on terrorism-related offenses. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty. Under Egypt’s counterterrorism law, founders and leaders of terrorist organizations are subject to the death penalty or life imprisonment.

He converted to Christianity in 2016 and joined the Russian Orthodox Church in Egypt, enduring family rejection, societal hostility, and police intimidation for sharing his faith publicly.

In 2018, he traveled to Russia, where he sought asylum and began publicly criticizing Islam. His online posts angered segments of Russia’s Muslim community, leading to his arrest and a one-year prison sentence. Russia then revoked his asylum and deported him to Egypt in 2024.

That deportation violated international law: the UNHCR had previously determined Abdelrazek qualified for international protection, and a Russian court had issued a binding order on July 17, 2024, prohibiting his deportation. Rights advocates condemn the move as illegal refoulement.

Upon arrival in Egypt, Egyptian authorities held him incommunicado for approximately ten days, then interrogated him about his religious beliefs, pressured him to reconsider his faith, asked him to monitor other converts, and ordered him to delete his social media accounts. Authorities released him with instructions not to speak publicly or proselytize.

In July 2025, he asked a lawyer to help him obtain new identification documents reflecting his Christian faith. He was arrested on July 15 at the Al-Matareiah police station in Cairo. On July 22, Egypt’s State Security Court charged him with “joining a terrorist organisation,” “stirring unrest,” and “spreading false news.”

His trial opened April 21, 2026, before Egypt’s First Criminal Terrorism Circuit in Badr. His legal team submitted motions requesting time to prepare a full defense; the court granted the adjournment and scheduled the next hearing for June 15.

Prosecutors accused Abdelrazek of establishing and leading an unlawful group, joining a banned organization, financing it, promoting beliefs deemed harmful to national unity and social peace, showing contempt for Islam, and challenging its fundamental principles. Apostasy, leaving Islam for another faith, is not formally codified as a crime in Egypt, but is often prosecuted under broadly defined security charges. The pattern spans multiple cases and years.

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Christian in Egypt Faces Terrorism Charges for Simply Declaring His Faith in Jesus in Legal Docs: Report

A Christian convert in Egypt faces a trial over his attempt to change his legal documents to reflect his newfound faith.

Said Abdelrazek, who turned from Islam to Christianity, has been accused of terrorism merely for trying to amend the papers, according to a report from International Christian Concern.

The ministry noted that Abdelrazek will therefore face proceedings before the First Criminal Terrorism Circuit in Badr — a court that is notorious for disappearing convicts and practicing other “opaque proceedings” — on April 21.

“The Badr court complex, where Abdelrazek’s hearing will take place, has drawn increasing concern from international observers,” International Christian Concern warned.

“Critics argue that its terrorism circuits operate with minimal transparency and routinely deny defendants basic legal protections.”

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