Mohamed Soltan

Personal life

Mohamed Soltan is an Egyptian-American Human Rights Advocate. Mohamed was born in Egypt and moved to the US in the mid-90's at the age of 7 where he lived in multiple cities (Boston, Kansas City, Detroit, Columbus). Mohamed played Junior Varsity, and Varsity basketball in high school, and was active in his local community. From a young age, Mohamed took initiatives to helping people, and frequently volunteered in local soup kitchens.

Mohamed is the second eldest of five, his mother and father are middle school sweethearts from a small village in Egypt. Mohamed grew up in a loving and supportive household that always emphasized independence and creativity. Mohamed's father Salah Soltan is a prominent Islamic Jurisprudence Scholar, who taught at many distinguished Islamic educational institutions, and has authored over 80 books on varying issues like Obligation to Vote in the US, to Marriage Life in the West and Women's Inheritance in Islam. The elder Soltan has also made comments against Jews and spread the conspiracy theory regarding the Elders of Zion. His father is ideologically affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, but Mohamed and his family have confirmed that he is not a member of that group or have any other affiliations in Egypt.

Arab Spring

Mohamed took an open-ended break from his school when the 2011 revolution broke out and went to Egypt to join the youth's revolution for freedom. He and his friends at Ohio State University created shirts for the youth coalition to wear in the entrances of Tahrir Square. Mohamed joined the sit-in in Tahrir and was on the frontline at the Presidential Palace in Egypt when President Mubarak was forced to step down. Weeks after, Mohamed returned to the US and toured US University campuses to speak on his experience during the revolution.

Return to Egypt

After graduating from Ohio State University with a bachelors of science in economics in 2012, Mohamed Soltan moved back to Egypt, to aid his ill mother who was receiving treatment for cancer. He worked as a buisiness development manager for an Egyptian petroleum service company. During that time, his father served as the Deputy Minister of Islamic Endowment in the 2012 Morsi administration.

Rabaa Square

Mohamed has been making international headlines since August 2013, when he was swept up in the crackdown on pro-democracy activists protesting the 3 July 2013 Military Coup de'état. In protest of the return of military rule, Mohamed joined the Rab’aa Al-Adawiya sit-ins, where he served as a de facto citizen-journalist and often coordinated with foreign journalists and the protestors. As a result, he became a first hand witness to the violent dispersal of the sit-in, where he sustained a gunshot wound in the arm by snipers while live-tweeting what later came to be known as the bloodiest massacre in Egypt's recent history.

Arrest

Mohamed was subsequently arrested, along with three journalists by Egyptian security forces on 25 August 2001 shortly after while recovering at his family home in the suburbs of Cairo. Mohamed disappeared for two days, and was blindfolded beaten and interrogated by state security officers about his father's whereabouts. During the first months of his imprisonment, Mohamed was tortured, beaten on his broken arm and was deliberately denied medical attention. Mohamed wrote a letter to his mother, letter to President Obama, and a letter home describing the circumsatnces he was living under.

Hunger strike

Months into his imprisonment, Mohamed began an open-ended hunger strike that lasted 489 days to protest his unjust imprisonment and the inhumane detention conditions. On 30 May 2015, shortly after an Egyptian judge sentenced him to life in prison along with 37 others, including 13 journalists. The United States government spoke out against the sentencing and the White House condemned Mohamed's sentencing, and demanded his immediate release. 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.

On 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.

#FreeSoltan Campaign

Mohamed's hunger-strike was supported by a world-wide campaign effort, both locally in Egypt and Internationally in the US and Europe. The campaign was managed by Mohamed's older sister and consisted of family, friends, lawyers, human rights defenders from across the world. The campaign focused on managing messaging, channeling it effectively in legal and governmental circles. The campaign succeeding in rallying thousands of people from all walks of life behind Mohamed's plight.

The #FreeSoltan campaign 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. Supporters of Soltan have also called the charges against him to be politically motivated. The hunger strike by Soltan has sparked criticism of the Egyptian authorities on social media and led to mass petitions and demonstrations to highlight his imprisonment. 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.

The campaign became the complementing component in the formula that eventually led to Mohamed's freedom.

Advocacy

Following his release, Mohamed has briefed many senior government officials,. He testified in congress to the Lantos Commission on Human Rights. Mohamed also briefed renowned NGO's, human rights organizations and other advocacy groups to discuss the gross human rights violations he had faced in prison and that many continue to face. He has been highly effective in highlighting the grim reality of political prisons in Egypt by providing a first hand account of the grave injustice many young people like him have endured.

Mohamed hopes to bring his story and the story of thousands like him to the attention of the public. He has dedicated his time to tireless advocacy for the voiceless.