Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon, subcommittee members. It's always a pleasure to be in front of you. I'm certainly delighted to be able to bring such an esteemed and valued colleague as Mohamed Lotfy with me today.
As you know, he is here from our international office, where he leads Amnesty International's work on Egypt, which, as you can well imagine, especially over this last year and a half, has been no easy task. But he has, along with colleagues at our international office, spearheaded some remarkable human rights research and advocacy and campaigning efforts that have marked our response to Egypt's unimagined and remarkable year of human rights change.
I know you'll enjoy hearing his insights and experiences. He was on the ground in Egypt itself for about six months last year at various points. He's also been on the ground again already quite a bit this year, and he'll be heading back to Egypt in about two weeks' time in advance of the presidential elections.
He has both a good sense of how things have been unfolding over the last year and a half and certainly a view and assessment to share with you with respect to current conditions in Egypt. I will hand things over to him to share some reflections of thoughts with you.