Supporters hope jailed activist will benefit from Egypt-Palestine warming
Egypt's increasingly harmonious ties with Palestinians are raising hopes that prominent activist Ramy Shaath will be removed from Egypt's terror list and released from prison.
Egypt's Court of Cassation will rule March 10 on an appeal to remove Palestinian-Egyptian political activist Ramy Shaath and 11 other detainees from Egypt's terrorist list.
Shaath, the son of prominent Palestinian politician Nabil Shaath and the leader of the Egypt branch of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was arrested at his home on July 5, 2019, and has been detained in Cairo's notorious Tora prison since, pending investigation.
He faces accusations of "assisting a terrorist group to achieve its goals" in relation to what is known in the Egyptian media as the "Hope Plan” case, in which a group of secular politicians were arrested in June 2019 and charged with "involvement in a Muslim Brotherhood plot to bring down the state."
He and the other defendants are accused of being part of a so-called Coalition of Hope, a political alliance of liberal parties, former legislators, journalists, businesspeople and labor and youth leaders that had sought to field candidates in the 2020 legislative elections.
