A Statement of Imprisoned Egyptian Blogger Maikel Nabil

Egyptian Blogger Maikel Nabil

Sampsonia Way has been following the situation of imprisoned Egyptian pacifist and blogger Maikel Nabil who has now been on hunger strike for more than sixty days.

On October 11th, the military tribunal had declared the April 10th ruling that sentenced Nabil to three years in prison “null and void.” However, Nabil was not released and the court ordered a retrial for October 18th. Nabil refused to attend the retrial and, according to War Resisters International, had asked his lawyers to discontinue co-operation with the military court. According to one of his lawyers, a representative was appointed in their absence who was unfamiliar with the case.

The court ordered Nabil to be transferred to a mental health hospital to undergo evaluation. “They’re taking him to the hospital and will most likely just declare him insane,” said Maged Hanna, one of the two lawyers on Nabil’s defense team. A new trial date has been set for November 1st, which also marks the 70th day of Nabil’s hunger strike.

In a statement released on Monday October 17, Nabil appears to be lucid, but his father has reported that he is in a very grave physical condition. This unedited statement was taken from The Free Maikel Nabil Facebook page:

A Statement For Whomever it May Concern

My sadness grew of what I knew from journals last week… I was saddened for Maspero victims who were assassinated by the bullets of the militarist occupation, I was saddened for the militarists’ chasing of the leaderships of the movement and especially my sister and my colleague Sahar Maher and threatening them with death, imprisonment and attempting to recruit them to the Intelligence as the militarists attempted with me and fail continually.

So as, I was shocked of the news of the apology which my father gave the militarists and the silly way which Adel Morsi the chief of the death battalion affiliated to the military council to make him sign on an insulting paper to all revolutionaries, not me alone… I didn’t commit any mistake to apologize, I’m proud of each word I wrote and each stance I made, it honors me that I was the first one to hold banners in Tahrir against the military rule, at the time when naive politicians and the paid agents were flattering the army… The military council is the one to have to apologize on its crimes of killing, torturing and unlawful prosecutions.

The military council is the one to have to apologize for my imprisonment, my torture, silencing my mouth, spying on my life, my relatives and my friends. I disavow myself from the apology paper which my father signed.

I also felt great insult from the insistence of my lawyers to ignore my willingness in boycotting the military judiciary, and their insistence to impose a guardianship on me and to litigate before the military judiciary without my knowledge and against my will. That’s why I announce that I won’t attend tomorrow’s session, and that no lawyer represents me before the military judiciary.

May the militarists go to hell with their ugly theatrical play, I don’t beg for my freedom from a group of killers and homeland stealers.

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg general prison 2011/10/17

Update: January 25, 2012, 1:00 pm (EST)
Maikel Nabil Sanad was officially released from El-Marg prison on January 24. At the time of this update his brother Mark reports that Nabil is resting after 10 months in prison and an extended hunger strike.

Read more about Maikel Nabil here:
www.maikel-nabil-in-jail.blogspot.com/
www.freemaikel.com