14 Jun 2011
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Alkarama has learned that the Egyptian authorities released Mr. Nabil El-Maghribi on June 2011. He had been taken to prison as a young man in the prime of his life, more than thirty years ago; he leaves as an old man of more than seventy.
Mr. Nabil El-Maghribi is considered to be the oldest political prisoner in Egypt. He was arrested in 1979 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, then further charged with the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 even though he was in prison at the time, for which he was sentenced to hard labour for life.
To make matters worse, he was charged in other cases which happened while he was in prison, and sentenced to many further years of imprisonment.
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Alkarama congratulates Mr. Nabil El-Maghribi on his release, and calls upon the Egyptian authorities to hasten to examine the cases of all prisoners thrown into prison by the former regime on ready-made charges and unjust sentences, and to implement a complete break with all the pre-revolutionary practices contrary to the basic principles of human rights - especially given that Alkarama has noted many cases of torture currently being practiced by the army against demonstrators.