Wall Street Journal: American Arrested in Dubai at Risk of Deportation to Egypt with Radha Stirling

By

Stephen Kalin and Chao Deng

Nov. 30, 2022 7:44 am ET

DUBAI—An American citizen arrested recently on a visit to the United Arab Emirates faces possible extradition to his native Egypt after criticizing Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and calling on Egyptians to protest in videos he made while living in the U.S.

Sherif Osman, 46, an Egyptian-American dual national, was one of a handful of Egyptians abroad urging people to organize demonstrations during a United Nations climate summit in November held in the Egyptian beach city of Sharm El Sheikh and attended by world leaders including President Biden.

On his YouTube channel, Mr. Osman said on Oct. 18 that “people must wake up and take to the streets.” The video was viewed 110,000 times and is one of a dozen videos he posted in recent weeks criticizing the Egyptian government.

Mr. Osman was born in Egypt but hasn’t been back since before the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Sisi, a military general, came to power in a coup in 2013 against a democratically elected president from the Muslim Brotherhood.

A U.A.E. official said Mr. Osman was arrested on Nov. 6 based on a request from an Arab League entity that coordinates among member states on law enforcement and national security.

The official said the U.A.E. was working to secure legal documentation required for extradition.

A person familiar with the case said the request came from Egypt, which his fiancée, Saija Virta, said tallies with what the U.S. Embassy and Emirati authorities told her and Mr. Osman.

An Egyptian government spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Embassy in the U.A.E. is aware of Mr. Osman’s arrest and consular officers spoke with him on Nov. 10, a spokesman said.

Mr. Osman was visiting Dubai to introduce Ms. Virta to his sister and mother, who was due to fly in from Egypt but was turned back at Cairo airport without explanation.

The pair became engaged in May after meeting in Texas, where Mr. Osman earned a degree in finance and accounting in 2019. They live in Massachusetts, where he runs a small business for legalized marijuana cultivation.

Mr. Osman was taken off the street outside a Dubai restaurant two days after arriving from the U.S. Two men in civilian clothes spoke to him before asking him to get into an unmarked vehicle, Ms. Virta, who was with him at the time, said.

Mr. Osman has been critical of the Egyptian regime for years. In 2019, he appeared in videos created by Mohamed Ali, a former Egyptian contractor based in Spain, who accused Mr. Sisi and the military of misusing state funds. The videos helped spark protests that year in Egypt and Mr. Ali is wanted by Egyptian authorities.

In Mr. Osman’s Oct. 18 video, he said he had been coordinating with Mr. Ali to call for protests in Egypt on Nov. 11.

Ms. Virta said Mr. Osman told her that he hadn’t been mistreated under arrest but had faced extensive delays in speaking to a lawyer. The Emirati official said the U.A.E. was adhering to international standards including regular consular access and legal counsel.

Radha Stirling, who founded Detained in Dubai to support foreigners arrested in the U.A.E. and is advising Mr. Osman’s family, said diplomatic efforts are needed to free him. “If a solution is not reached, it is likely that Sherif will be extradited and subjected to grave human rights violations,” she said.

Human-rights advocates estimate that Mr. Sisi’s government has imprisoned tens of thousands of people for political reasons. In the month leading up to and during the U.N. climate conference, which started on Nov. 6, authorities detained hundreds of people across the country, according to Egyptian human-rights groups. Many of these people remain in custody.

On Nov. 11, a date on which Egyptians have called for protests in past years and that coincided with President Biden’s visit to Sharm El Sheikh, Egyptian police officers patrolled downtown Cairo and conducted searches of peoples’ mobile phones, according to residents. Few people ventured outside.

Mohamed Lotfy, the director of Cairo-based Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, says that while Nov. 11 passed without a major glitch, Mr. Osman still faces a high likelihood of being extradited given the close relationship between Egypt and the U.A.E.

“Everyone knows it’s dangerous to oppose the regime from the Emirates,” he said.

In 2018, the U.A.E. detained and deported former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to Egypt, after he announced his bid to run against Mr. Sisi in an election. On Egyptian soil, Mr.

Shafiq withdrew from the race.

The U.S. provides more than $1 billion in military aid to Egypt each year. For the past two years, the State Department withheld $130 million to penalize Cairo for its general human- rights record. The U.S. Senate withheld an additional $75 million in military funding this year, citing insufficient progress on the country’s treatment of political prisoners.

Mr. Biden brought up human rights during his meeting with Mr. Sisi in Sharm El Sheikh, according to the White House, although human-rights advocates have called upon the U.S. to do more.

—Amira El-Fekki contributed to this article.