Mohamed Soltan

Mohamed Soltan
Born	Mohamed Soltan circa 1988[1]
Ethnicity	Egyptian-American
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] and as of January 2015, he has since been on a continuous hunger strike for over a year.^[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 was a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and served in the Morsi administration, but Mohamed was not associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and, according to his siblings, was critical of their politics.

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]

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.^[6]

On Tuesday evening, 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.^{[7] [8]}

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 is imprisonment.^[8]

References