Husband calls for PM to intervene after wife detained in Egypt

Alice Cullinane

West Midlands

The husband of a woman who was detained by the Egyptian authorities has called for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to get involved and help with her release.

Eman el-Shazly, from Handsworth Wood, in Birmingham, was taken from her mother’s house in Cairo two months ago, allegedly in relation to her sister’s online activism.

Her husband, Zeesharn Moustapha, said that their family felt “very helpless” and that their “only possible solution” was for Burnham to “make a phone call to Egypt” to end the detainment.

The BBC has approached the Egyptian consulate in London for a response. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said it was in contact with authorities in Egypt.

Moustapha said he had had “no contact whatsoever” with his wife, but had heard from her mother that her health had deteriorated due to a lack of food and medical assistance.

“It’s not a five-star hotel, there’s 30 individuals sleeping in a cell with one toilet and one shower,” he said.

He told the BBC that his wife had travelled to Egypt to look after her elderly, sick mother, who had been undertaking 18-hour round trips to take food to el-Shazly’s two brothers in detention.

The 46-year-old claimed his wife had been detained due to her sister’s online posts from the UK targeting the Egyptian leadership,

“How somebody can make videos abroad knowing it’s causing direct consequences to people abroad, what kind of person can sleep at night doing that,” he said.

Her sister told the BBC that she was sorry that her family had been detained. She said this was a tactic used by the Egyptian government to silence critics.

But she would not stop posting her videos, because she felt it was her duty to make a stand.

Moustapha described support from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) as “useless” with no calls or updates from them.

“We are very angry, we feel that the government isn’t doing anything to secure the release of a British citizen,” he said, adding that his wife had held a British passport for 20 years.

Moustapha, who has four children, said there was no evidence against his wife, who was being left “to rot in jail” and that it was a “clear example of collective punishment”.

“The kids are very distraught, they are suffering, they’ve lost their mother at the moment and we genuinely don’t know what to do about it,” he said.

A spokesperson for the FCDO said: “We are supporting the family of a British national detained in Egypt, and are in contact with the authorities.”