On Thursday, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issued a statement warning of the imminent forced deportation of Abd al-Baqi Saeed Abdo, 52, a Yemeni asylum seeker, who is being held in pretrial detention on charges of joining a terrorist group and contempt of Islam.
The human rights group explained that the arrest of Abdo came against the background of his announcement on social media of his conversion to Christianity, which took place in 2013, before his arrival to Egypt. Security forces had arrested Abdo from his home in Giza on December 15, 2021, at two in the morning, after searching his home and seizing three laptops.
The human rights group added that Abdo obtained an asylum registration card from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2015, and a card was issued to him that he still had in 2020. The principle of non-refoulement under international law ensures that should return no one to a country where they would be at risk of persecution, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or another form of irreparable harm. According to the human rights group, Abdo came to Egypt seeking asylum after killing his wife following their conversion to Christianity. It called on the Egyptian authorities to stop the process of deporting Abo, release him and drop all charges against him.
