Saudi Arabia Deports Egyptian Dissident Ahmed Kamel Despite Human Rights Warnings
Amid fears of enforced disappearance and torture, Saudi authorities extradite Ahmed Kamel to Egypt, ignoring international appeals and legal concerns.
Watan-In a move that sparked outrage and criticism, Saudi authorities deported Egyptian citizen Ahmed Kamel to his home country despite human rights warnings and international calls to halt his extradition, amid fears that he could face enforced disappearance or torture in Egypt’s prisons.
The decision came during Ramadan, a month of mercy and forgiveness, yet Saudi authorities ignored his family’s pleas and the appeals from human rights organizations to prevent his deportation.
Ahmed Kamel was arrested in November 2024 at Egypt’s request, as he had been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in a politically motivated case dating back to 2014, despite previously being detained and then
released.
Saudi Extradition of Ahmed Kamel Raises Human Rights Concerns
Although Human Rights Watch confirmed that no Interpol arrest warrant had been issued against him, Saudi Arabia carried out Egypt’s extradition request, raising questions about security cooperation between the two countries in pursuing political dissidents.
Ahmed Kamel was not internationally wanted, nor was he a fugitive from justice. He had legally lived in Saudi Arabia for more than ten years, working and supporting his family far from the repression he had fled.
Yet overnight, he found himself arrested and facing deportation to Egypt, where Sisi’s prisons—infamous for their harsh conditions and severe human rights abuses—await him.
This is not the first time Egyptians wanted for political reasons have been deported despite life-threatening risks. Previously, Egyptian poet Abdel Rahman Youssef Al-Qaradawi was arrested in Lebanon and handed over to the UAE, where he completely disappeared into Abu Dhabi’s prisons, and his fate remains unknown.
Another Dissident Betrayed to Repression
The same scenario is unfolding with Ahmed Kamel, making him yet another statistic in the long list of dissidents coldly handed over to merciless authoritarian regimes.
Ahmed Kamel’s family now lives in fear and anxiety over his fate, as he falls into the grip of Egyptian authorities, while the Arab and international silence continues in the face of these repeated violations.
How many more Ahmed Kamels are waiting for their turn? How many more families will be devastated by such oppressive policies? And how long will silence remain the only witness to the brutal targeting of dissidents?
