The new USA administration of Joe Biden suspended the immunity given to Hazem al-Beblawy, the former Egyptian Prime Minister and the member IMF’s board, who is accused of torturing the American citizen of Egyptian descent Mohamed Soltan. “NEW Biden administration puts hold on Egyptian request for immunity for former Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi in torture lawsuit brought by U.S. citizen Mohamed Soltan,” said Spencer Hsu, reporter of Washington Post. He added that the Egyptian request will not be revised by US State Department until the 26^th of February.

Soltan is the son of Professor Salah Soltan, a well-known Egyptian academic, who serves a life-imprisonment sentence in Egypt for protesting the 3^rd of July military coup in 2013. Mohamed was arrested, while he was in Egypt in 2013, for participating in Rabaa sit-in against the military coup. He was later released after a prolonged hunger strike and abandoning the Egyptian nationality. In June 2020, Soltan filed a lawsuit against Hazem el-Beblawi, who had been Egypt’s Prime Minister from July 2013 until March 2014. Soltan accused al-Beblawy of holding responsibility of torturing him during his detention in Egypt. In July 2020, the lawyer of el-Beblawi told the court that the Egyptian Embassy demanded immunity for him because of his previous official position along with his current diplomatic status as a member of IMF’s board.