Mr. Speaker, Maikel Nabil is a young Egyptian blogger, one of the early voices of the Tahrir Square revolution, whose words, “the army and the people are of one hand”, symbolized the hopes of the Egyptian Arab Spring. When the military started oppressing civilians, Nabil wrote, “the army and the people are no longer of one hand”, for which he was sentenced by a military tribunal to three years in prison in a process devoid of any legality.
Maikel is now on the 95th day of his hunger strike. He has become a symbol of hope and betrayal of an Egyptian Spring turned Winter, his life hanging by a thread.
I know all colleagues will join me in urging the Egyptian authorities to immediately release him and vindicate the original hopes of the Egyptian Arab Spring.