Mohamed Soltan

Mohamed Soltan
Born	Mohamed Soltan circa 1988[1]
Alma mater	Ohio State University
Known for	Activism

Mohamed Soltan (Arabic: محمد سلطان‎‎, born circa 1988^[1]), an Egyptian-American dual citizen who is a political activist in Egypt. He was one of the media spokesmen for the camp in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where protesters called for the reinstatement of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.^[2] He was arrested along with 3 other youths by Egyptian security forces on 27 August 2013.^[3] Soltan has been charged with a number of terror- and conspiracy-related charges in connection with his participation in demonstrations against Morsi's ouster.

In January 26, 2014, he entered into a hunger strike to protest his detention by the Egyptian authorities.^[4] He was released and sent back to the US on May 31, 2015. His hunger strike lasted more than 400 days.^[5]

Personal life

The Soltan family moved from Egypt to the United States in the mid-1990s, when Mohamed was a young boy. The family lived mostly in the Midwest — in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio — where Soltan’s father, Salah Soltan, taught at various Islamic institutes. Salah Soltan had been a senior leader in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt although his family claimed Mohamed was not a member of that group.^[6]

After graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in economics in 2012, Mohamed Soltan returned to Egypt, where his mother was receiving treatment for cancer. He got a job at an Egyptian petroleum services company.^[4] His father served in the Morsi administration.^[7]

Arrest and hunger strike

He was among the media spokesmen for the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square protesters calling for the reinstatement of deposed President Morsi. On 14 August 2013, after a police operation to disperse the protest camp, he was injured while speaking to a television reporter.^[4]

On 27 August, he was arrested and held by the police, on the grounds that he was in possession of documents urging members of the army and police to defect.^[4]

At Soltan’s first appearance in front of a judge on 26 January 2014, Egypt’s public prosecutor did not present evidence incriminating him in the “operations room” plot — but the judge renewed his detention anyway. This caused him to take the decision to hunger strike.^[4]

According to a Guardian report citing an independent medical report facilitated by the US embassy, Soltan had lost at least a third of his bodyweight and was unable to stand unassisted on his 100th day of hunger strike in jail.^[8]

On 27 May 2014, a video showing Soltan was released by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in which Soltan asks President Obama and the international community for help.^{[9] [10]}

Reactions

A US embassy official has said embassy representatives have visited Soltan several times at the Tora prison outside Cairo and have been present at Soltan’s hearings.^[4]

Soltan’s family has accused the U.S. government of not doing enough to push Egyptian authorities to resolve or drop his case, which they say is politically motivated.^[4] Supporters of Soltan have also called the charges against him to be politically motivated.^[1]

The hunger strike by Soltan has sparked criticism of the Egyptian authorities on social media and led to mass petitions and demonstrations to highlight his imprisonment.^[10]

References