Statements
Egypt: Stop the mass execution
A kangaroo court in Egypt just sentenced 528 people to death. This is likely the biggest mass execution ruling this century, but one man can stop the killings.
Dear friends,
The pressure on some of my staff at Avaaz is reaching a breaking point: they’ve received death threats, had their computers and emails hacked, their cars tampered with, and been threatened on television and radio. Wissam, while delivering our call to stop Egypt’s largest mass execution in history, was detained at the Cairo airport, taken into a windowless room and interrogated for hours — drilled with chillingly well-informed questions about his personal life, travel and work with Avaaz!
I’ve felt threatened when my Skype and email were hacked, taken over and misused, but nothing like our campaigners who live under constant threat. Let’s stand behind these brave people who speak our community’s truth to power.
The threats will get worse as we become larger and more effective, taking on some of the most entrenched and powerful players on the planet. That’s why Avaaz needs to triple-reinforce our security systems, including legal counsel to stand ready for emergencies, media support to raise the alarm if people are threatened, better encryption and the resources to move staff to a safe location when the pressure gets to be too much.
Avaaz