A non-profit organization in Washington, D.C., claims that a Christian YouTuber in Egypt was sentenced to five years of hard labor for supporting Christianity online.
According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Aughustinos Samaan was found guilty of "contempt of religion" and "misuse of social media" for posting content that defended Christianity. He will serve five years of hard labor.
According to Coptic Solidarity, Samaan's YouTube channel, which has 100,000 subscribers, concentrates on reacting to the anti-Christian content that is being extensively shared in Egypt. In addition, he is a researcher with a focus on comparative religion and Christian apologetics.
Following his arrest in October of last year, Samaan was first held for 15 days while an investigation was conducted.
But as FDD research researcher Mariam Wahba notes, the two-week arrest swiftly turned into months of incarceration.She previously said, "Egypt's legal system effectively punishes detainees long before a case ever reaches trial by keeping people detained and isolated for extended periods of time."The maximum pretrial detention lengths under Egyptian law are supposedly limited to six months for misdemeanors, eighteen months for felonies, and twenty-four months for crimes that entail the death penalty or life in prison. However, in reality, this framework is frequently exploited to make it almost impossible for inmates to obtain a trial or be released, according to Wahba.
According to the FDD analyst, prosecutors frequently extend two-week imprisonment terms for a maximum of five months "under the pretext of ongoing investigations."
Notably, Mustafa Kassem, an Egyptian-American, died in custody in 2020 after spending five years in pretrial confinement under this system.
A few weeks before to Samaan, Saeed Mostafa, an Egyptian Muslim who became a Christian, was detained on suspicion of "joining a terrorist organization" and "contempt of Islam."
Samaan was also sentenced without a fair trial.As of right now, neither access to the case file nor a real chance to exercise the right of defense or represent the defendant in court have been provided to the defense. According to a news statement from Coptic Solidarity, "these circumstances raise serious concerns regarding fair-trial guarantees and the fundamental right to defense as enshrined in the Egyptian Constitution and domestic law."
Coptic Solidarity clarifies that the Egyptian Constitution's protections of freedom of expression and belief are exclusive to Muslims.The Samaan case highlights how these rules serve more as tools of coercion than as Cairo's intended protections for religious peace. According to Wahba, "this application signals that minority religious expression remains conditional and punishable, reinforcing the vulnerability of Christians within Egypt's legal system."
According to the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 worst persecutors of Christians worldwide, Egypt is ranked 42nd this year.The majority of abuses of religious freedom in Egypt occur at the local level. These include crowds driving out Christians for suspected blasphemy and mistreatment of Christian women. According to Open Doors, these instances mostly occur in Upper Egypt's rural areas and some impoverished urban areas, particularly when Islamic radicals are present.
The most persecuted people are those who convert from Islam.
However, Christians in that region of the world continue to persevere in the face of intimidation, prejudice, and even death.
The originator of "For the Martyrs," Gia Chacon, is bringing attention to the suffering of persecuted Christians.They maintained their faith and had hope despite the most unspeakable catastrophe and heinous crimes against humanity, she added.