Ghada Najib; Egyptian Activist Criticized an Officer of "Sisi's Intelligence" and Lost Her Nationality
Many Egyptian opponents abroad have not thought that the Abdel Fattah al-Sisi regime may drop citizenship from citizens, especially since it is a precedent that has rarely been repeated in the history of Egypt.
The last decision to revoke citizenship for political reasons was taken by the Command Council of the July Revolution on September 23, 1954, when six Egyptians, Mahmoud Abul Fotouh, Abdul Hakim Abedin, Saeed Ramadan, Saad eddin Al-Walili, Mohamed Joueville and Kamel Sharif, were revoked under the pretext of betraying the homeland, as a charge that president Gamal Abdel Nasser often accused his opponents.
Nearly 66 years later, al-Sisi's regime did it again and revoked the citizenship of Egyptian citizen Ghada Najib, wife of actor and media figure Hisham Abdullah, the Egyptian official gazette reported on December 24, 2020. The decision of the Prime Minister, Mustafa Madbouli, on the pretext that she holds Syrian citizenship.
Ghada received the verdict with great shock, writing through her Facebook page: "I’m still shocked, and I can't understand who in the whole world can take away my Egyptian nationality from me, who gave them the right, I am more Egyptian than you and no one can deny me my Egyptianness”.
She said that the Egyptian government does not have official documents confirming that she has Syrian nationality, and has stressed that she holds only Egyptian citizenship, and stressed that she has proof of her Egyptian origin”.
At the same time, the Egyptian activist denounced the fact a lieutenant colonel in the General Intelligence Service (Ahmed Shaaban) runs the state, makes decisions, controls the destinies of human beings and drops their nationality.
Egyptian Citizen
Ghada Mohammed Najib was born on February 3, 1972, in Cairo, Egypt, and received her education at New Egypt Girls High School, after which she enrolled in law school at Ain Shams University, received her bachelor's degree in law, and in 1995 married artist Hisham Abdullah.
Ghada emerged on the political scene during her participation in the January 25, 2011 revolution that toppled the late President Hosni Mubarak, and from that moment on Ghada continued to interact and participate in successive demonstrations.
Ghada was one of the symbols of the revolution in Tahrir Square, participated in the events of Mohamed Mahmoud, and the Council of Ministers, and was at the forefront of rejecting the dragging of a girl by army soldiers in Tahrir Square, and demanded retribution for the martyrs of the revolution.
Ghada announced her opposition to the military council that ran the transition, led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and opposed the rule of the late President Mohamed Morsi, and was among the leaders of the opposition rebel movement, which called for early presidential elections.
Position Review
Ghada took part in the June 30, 2013 demonstrations, but opposed the July 3, 2013 coup, which toppled president-elect Mohamed Morsi by then Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in an integrated military coup.
Ghada felt that there was a conspiracy plotted by the deep state, specifically the intelligence services, by moving leads within Tamarrod (Rebel) movement, which was one of its founders, so she chose to withdraw and take a national position, and entered on her decision in deep differences with personalities within the movement, and the media of the regime worked to tarnish its image.
Ghada Najib stood against the break-up of the Rabaa sit-in on August 14, 2013, and made her position clear in the bloody days of the dispersal of the sit-in, describing the incident as the largest massacre in Egypt's history.
In December 2015, Ghada demanded that Tamarod movement be tried for "high treason" and made remarks to the opposition Al-Sharq TV channel, saying: "This is not a popular movement that overthrew President Morsi, but an intelligence movement."
She added: "The leaks broadcasted by Mekameleen channel (which is about Tamarod receiving an external funding from the UAE) acquit me of being a sleeper cell of the Brotherhood, I announced my withdrawal from the movement a week before the events of June 30th”.
She declared: "She has received confirmation from the movement's leader Hassan Shaheen that there is coordination at the highest level between the movement and the intelligence, mediated by a very famous journalist (Diaa Rashwan), on the pretext that the Brotherhood will go down to the streets with weapons".
"This is a great betrayal, and the evidence that President Mohamed Morsi is innocent of espionage with Qatar, or brotherhood leaders with foreign countries, and Tamarod leaders must be tried for receiving funding from abroad," she said.
After leaving Egypt, as a result of threats and detention, she settled in Turkey with her husband, artist Hisham Abdullah, and participated in many anti-Sisi events, as well as media meetings, and revealed to many scenes the cooperation of some movements and activists with the intelligence services.
Multiple Abuses
Ghada Najib's positions made her vulnerable to the authority’s abuse, which began in 2016, when the attorney general issued a decision to approve the placement of artist Hisham Abdullah and his wife Ghada Najib on the watch lists.
On January 31, 2019, Ghada and Hisham were sentenced to five years in prison in the 2017 case under no. 1102. known in the media as the case of "Media of the Brotherhood".
The Sisi regime has not only sentenced those who are in his grip, instead in August 2018, the authority exercised a policy of another kind, when it arrested the younger brother of the Egyptian activist, a high school student who was less than 17 years old.
The State Security Prosecution decided to imprison him in connection with case No. (441) for 2018. State security, known in the media as the "Black hole", because it included many journalists, politicians and bloggers.
On December 25, 2020, artist Hisham Abdullah announced that authorities had arrested five of his brothers' sons before they were forcibly hidden. "My five nephews have been arrested, and I only know the news now, and they are forcibly disappeared, so they join my older brother and my wife's brothers who have been detained for two years," Abdullah said in a Twitter tweet.
Password
The password for the removal of citizenship from Egyptian activist Ghada Najib lies in the officer of the General Intelligence Service Colonel "Ahmed Shaaban", who is close to the head of the agency Major General Abbas Kamel.
Ghada said in a video that Shaaban sent her a mediator, asking her to stop her attack against him, and delete all the posts she wrote on her page about his practices, but she asked the mediator to delete all the news published by the regime media, which she said had offended her and her reputation, before entering into those negotiations.
Ghada said: "The campaign of attack and threats that I am subjected to, because of the leaks that my husband broadcasted, on his television program on Al-Sharq TV channel, included confessions of the former activist in Tamarod "Doaa Khalifa", who was arrested in early September 2020 on charges against intelligence officer Ahmed Shaaban, whom she described as "the executive director of Egypt."
After these tensions, Colonel Ahmed Shaaban began moving his media arms in preparation for the decision to revoke citizenship from Ghada, and on October 23, 2020, the journalist Mohammed al-Baz, through his program on "An-Nahar Channel", began an episode entitled "Revealing a surprise with documents about Syrian Ghada Najib" obtaining Egyptian citizenship from Hisham Abdullah” to begin a systematic campaign questioning the Egyptian identity of Ghada.
The clash between Ghada and Shaaban culminated on November 29, 2020, when the Egyptian activist revealed that Colonel Shaaban had tried to block her personal Facebook account by communicating with the MBC television network.
"Finally, the account came back after reports from "MBC" claiming property rights on my live broadcast and on publications I wrote before and after the live broadcast, of course all of which belong to The Prince of Sorrow Ahmed Shaaban," Najib wrote through her account.
She added: "The important thing is that after many messages between me and the Facebook administration, they returned the live broadcast again and all the posts, because they were sure that they were malicious and untrue communications. Committees, malicious reports, and the use of influence to make a channel like (MBC) make a report on a personal page, very strong is the falcon of the Egyptian Intelligence."
