On Tuesday, Egyptian-Palestinian political activist Ramy Shaath said he would turn to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to demand compensation for what he described as the violations he was subjected to while he was held in Egypt for more than two and a half years.

Shaath issued a statement calling on world leaders to stop their double standards and insist on human rights as an essential criterion for relations with Egypt.

44 Egyptian and international human rights groups, including the Open Society Foundations, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Freedom Initiative, and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, supported Shaath’s move. Shaath demanded compensation, the return of his Egyptian nationality, and the Egyptian government dropping all charges against him. He also called for his name to be removed from the terrorist list.