Freed Al Jazeera Journalist Is Not Staying Silent About Abuses In Egypt

Abdullah al-Shamy spent 10 months in jail with no charge — and 147 days on a hunger strike that nearly killed him.













Abdullah al-Shamy with his wife, Gehad Khaled, after his release in June. Their t-shirts say, "Freedom."


Twitter: @abdallahelshamy











Having spent 10 months in an Egyptian jail until his sudden release earlier this year, Al Jazeera journalist Abdullah al-Shamy, 26, just wants to travel the world and get back to reporting.

But when he went to see the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday, protesters in support of Egyptian general-turned-president Abdul Fattah el-Sisi cursed his name, and threw boiling coffee at him.

They recognized his young face from all the news reports; he was that hunger-striking Al Jazeera journalist who caused Egypt all that trouble.

















A coffee stain was never likely to silence al-Shamy, given that he has endured over 10 months in jail without charge, including 147 days on a hunger strike.






Twitter: @abdallahelshamy











Both Sisi and al-Shamy were in New York this week: Sisi to meet with President Obama and world leaders at the UN General Assembly, and al-Shamy on a speaking tour to lobby for the release of his three Al Jazeera colleagues.

"They [the military] don't really understand any kind of language except pressure," al-Shamy told in an interview. "Calling on Sisi to do something or asking him to do something, I don't think that would work. But I am very sure that the U.S. government has the power to do it [pressure]. But it's mainly interest. They don't want to lose Egypt as an ally, as they call it."

Egyptian police arrested the Al Jazeera crew at the start of a crackdown on journalists and opposition voices in August 2013, just six weeks after mass protests and the military, then led by Sisi, ousted President Mohammed Morsi. This June, an Egyptian court sentenced Baher Mohamed, Peter Greste, and Mohammed Fahmy to seven years in prison on charges of spreading false news and supporting terrorism.

The week before, Egyptian authorities released al-Shamy, citing his "health condition." By then, he had spent 147 days on a hunger strike and lost one-third of his body weight. For months authorities had taunted him: No hunger striker gets out alive.

If the upcoming appeal by the Al Jazeera crew is not successful, al-Shamy said he would urge his colleagues to also go on a hunger strike — an act which he said led to his own release. It is a method of protest that has been picked up by more and more imprisoned Egyptians.

In an interview with News, Al-Shamy did not show any immediate signs of the physical and psychological pain he has endured. But the intensity of his message never broke.

"We have no kind of justice in the country [Egypt]," al-Shamy said. "There is no kind of system that really works. This was really the reason that I started the hunger strike because I lost hope in the judicial system."







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