Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo, a Christian convert from Yemen, was arrested and spent more than two years in prison after his appearance on a Christian TV channel in Egypt, where he resides, and is a registered asylum seeker. In the interview, he discussed his conversion to Christianity and the persecution Christians face in his home country. Officially, the charges against him were joining a terrorist group, contempt of Islam, and discrimination against Islam. Given his treatment, he has started a hunger strike because of his unlawful and prolonged imprisonment. In a letter, translated by ADF International, a religious freedom advocacy group, he wrote,

“I am going to increase my strike in stages until it will be total during the coming weeks. And the reason of my strike (is) that they arrested me without any legal justification or that they convicted me for any violation of the law. And they did not set me free during my remand imprisonment which was ended eight months ago.”

There was another Christian convert, Nour Girgis, who was also arrested for talking about the faith and conversion in the same TV show. Abdo was reportedly sent to solitary confinement because he copied Bible verses on scrap paper. Back in April, he was denied medical treatment, and his family was denied visitation. ADF International said that they are currently working on the release of Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo and Nour Girgis, and to achieve it, they informed the relevant U.N. bodies about their situation.

Source: UCA news