Faced with a harsh security crackdown in the wake of a military coup against former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, many Egyptians had to flee their country. <\/p>\n
Many say they have been put on trial on \u201cfabricated\u201d charges of inciting violence and plotting to overthrow the military-backed ruling regime. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was arrested two days after the coup on fake charges of inciting violence,\u201d Muslim Brotherhood leader Helmi Gazzar told Anadolu Agency. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe charges were baseless as there was no single proof brought against me by prosecutors,\u201d said Gazzar, a former parliamentarian. <\/p>\n
Spending three months in a single cell, the Brotherhood leader was released on bail. He later fled Egypt to Sudan, where he lives now. <\/p>\n
Former lawmaker Ayman Nour said he had to flee Egypt following the coup against Morsi. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the first time to be forced to leave the country against my will,\u201d said Nour, who now lives in Istanbul, Turkey. <\/p>\n
Nour said he had been previously detained for \u201ctelling the truth\u201d and speaking out against injustice. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will come back to Egypt soon once freedom of speech is restored,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m confident that God will never abandon those who paid the price of freedom with their blood.\u201d <\/p>\n
Former deputy health minister Abdul Nasir Sakr, 61, gave a similar account of the circumstances that had forced him to flee Egypt. <\/p>\n
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sakr said he was detained by Egyptian security forces in 2013 following the dispersal of two major sit-ins in Cairo\u2019s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and Giza\u2019s Nahda square. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was released nearly a year later, but I had to flee to Sudan after I was charged [with violence],\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Hundreds of protesters were killed when Egyptian security forces violently cleared the two sit-ins amid a harsh crackdown that left thousands behind bars. <\/p>\n
Bloodiest day <\/p>\n
Mahmoud Abdulhamid al-Anani, 20, a journalist and blogger, was arrested in late 2013. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was slapped with a 6-year jail term on charges of plotting to overthrow the government,\u201d said Anani. <\/p>\n
He recalled that his house had been raided by security forces and one of his brothers was jailed for six months. <\/p>\n
“I managed to flee to Turkey in 2014,\u201d Anani said, reiterating that he believes \u201cthe revolution will succeed\u201d in Egypt. <\/p>\n
Former Al Jazeera correspondent Baher Mohamed, 34, was slapped with a 10-year jail term for allegedly spreading false news and links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which the authorities blacklisted in 2013. <\/p>\n
“The months I spent in prison have taught me how much they [authorities] hate the freedom of press,\u201d Mohamed said.
\n\u201cI have seen many innocent journalists languishing in prison,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mohamed\u2019s jail term was later reduced to three after an appeal before being released a presidential pardon.
\n“Knowledge is power and saves people from injustice,” Mohamed said. <\/p>\n
Mohammad Sultan, who now lives in the U.S., recalled bloodshed in Egypt following the violent dispersal of pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor two years, I have tried to remove the scenes of bloodshed, scattered bodies and injured people from my mind, but to no avail,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI tried hard to forget the smell of death.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sultan, who was extradited to the U.S. after abandoning his Egyptian nationality, recalled that an Egyptian sniper had fired on him as he was broadcasting live the dispersal of the Rabaa camp. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had almost missed me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He described the dispersal of the Rabaa sit in as \u201cbloodiest day in Egypt\u2019s modern history\u201d.-worldbulletin.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Faced with a harsh security crackdown in the wake of a military coup against former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, many Egyptians had to flee their country. Many say they have been put on trial on \u201cfabricated\u201d charges of inciting violence and plotting to overthrow the military-backed ruling regime. \u201cI was arrested two days after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":60071,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":625,"height":424,"file":"2017\/08\/rabia.jpg","filesize":53780,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":60070,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/rabia.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}