Sharif Abdel Kouddous’ Exclusive Interview with Recently Freed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Sharif Abdel Kouddous’ Exclusive Interview with Recently Freed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Sharif Abdel Kouddous’ Exclusive Interview with Recently Freed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah

In an extensive interview, Alaa tells Nation contributor Kouddous that Egypt’s military government is "on a sentencing frenzy."

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

After being released on bail following a 115-day detention, Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah sat down for an exclusive interview with Nation Institute fellow and Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous in Cairo on Sunday. Kouddous, who has chronicled Alaa’s persecution by Egyptian leadership for The Nation, spoke to the activist about his most recent arrest, his experience in solitary confinement and the military government's ongoing crackdown on dissent. Alaa still faces charges and tells Kouddous it's "quite likely" that he’ll be convicted and imprisoned again. "They are on a sentencing frenzy," he says, explaining that Egypt’s new protest law makes it easier to charge protesters. "It’s almost as if it’s a war on a whole generation." 
Justine Drennan

Editor’s note: The interview starts at 14:43

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x