On May 1st, 2020, Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash died in Cairo’s Tora maximum security prison complex. The initial reports didn’t disclose the cause of death or the circumstances surrounding it, but it was later reported that the 24-year-old had accidentally ingested “sanitizing solution” that he mistook for water, according to state-owned newspaper Al Ahram. In March 2018, Shady was among seven people arrested in connection to a music video he had directed for Rami Essam’s Balaha, a satirical song critical of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Among those arrested were one social media expert and two musicians who had previously worked with the singer, as well as an Egyptian man who played the song in his car in Kuwait, according to Mada Masr. The song was released ahead of Egypt’s 2018 presidential election, which saw then incumbent President Sisi win by a landslide with 97 percent of the votes. By the time of his death, Habash had been jailed for over two years for “spreading false news” and “joining a banned organization,” charges he was never convicted of or indeed even tried for. The Egyptian Front for Human Rights…
From Shady Habash to Menna Abdel Aziz: Egypt’s Warped Sense of Justice
May 29, 2020
