THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS IN ACTION:

Osman's plight is better understood in the context of the ever-expanding global reach of Egypt's authoritarian regime. Since coming to power in 2014, Sisi's repression has reached unprecedented levels, with experts estimating tens of thousands held as political prisoners and Egyptian civil society activists are under constant threat of imprisonment, travel bans, and asset freezes, forcing many to flee the country. Sisi's long arm of repression has even extended to silencing critics beyond Egypt's borders in what academics call "transnational repression." Indeed, Egypt is third, after China and Turkey -- and even surpassing Russia -- in a ranking of countries that commit transnational repression.

Osman isn't the first example of Egypt's attempts to repress Americans abroad. In June 2020, the regime arrested the family of U.S. human rights activist Mohamed Soltan after he filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court against former Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi for condoning torture practices during Soltan's unjust imprisonment in Egypt. A year ago, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of an Egyptian spy in New York who collected information about Sisi's political opponents in the United States. The suspect even sought to leverage his connections with local U.S. law enforcement officers to assist him in his endeavor. Sisi is clearly willing to threaten the lives of U.S. citizens and their families to silence any and all criticism.

UAE as a Facilitator of Transnational Repression 

Although the UAE freed Osman, traveling there has turned into a nightmare for democracy advocates and critics, as well as their family members, from all over the world. A few months before Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, the UAE authorities arrested his wife, Hanan Elatr, while she visited her family there, interrogated her about Khashoggi and his exile activism, and planted the powerful spyware Pegasus on her phone. Similarly, In August 2022, Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen and former lawyer of Khashoggi, was released after spending a month in UAE prisons on vague charges related to financial corruption.

Furthermore, in 2018, the UAE helped hack, arrest, and forcibly fly prominent Saudi women's rights activist Loujain Al-Hathloul back to Saudi Arabia, where she was tortured. The UAE also aided China's repression of Uyghurs by extraditing them to China and allowing high-ranking Chinese officials to run "black sites" on UAE soil, where they were coerced into spying for the Chinese Communist Party. 

Absence of Accountability

Osman's case reflects an important feature of the U.S.-Egypt relationship and the U.S. relationship with its allies in the Middle East and North Africa in general: the United States has consistently avoided holding Egyptian or other officials of the region's regimes   accountable for their violations, even against U.S. citizens. For instance, Egypt ignored calls by former Vice President Mike Pence to release Mostafa Kassem, another U.S. citizen, from prison after he was wrongfully arrested in 2013. He died in January 2020 after a long hunger strike and six years behind bars. Although members of Congress called on then-President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the Egyptian regime, Sisi, once dubbed by Trump as his "favorite dictator," suffered no consequences.

As a presidential candidate, Biden had promised to take a different path during his presidency, saying Sisi will get "no more blank checks," vowing to place human rights at the center of his foreign policy, and pledging to counter transnational repression. After nearly two years, the Biden administration has failed to turn these pledges into actual policies regarding Egypt or the broader region. The United States has been unable or unwilling to hold these authorities accountable for their violations of human rights and democratic norms. This paved the way for such regimes to further export their repression and even target U.S. citizens without fearing any form of accountability.

Tweet   @brothersjudd