Christian Convert Illegally Imprisoned and Tortured, Begins Hunger Strike

egypt-bishoyAccording to attorney Karam Ghobrial (“Gabriel”), his client, Bishoy Armia Boulous, a Muslim convert to Christianity, remains illegally incarcerated and has “vowed to starve himself to death.”

Bishoy, more notoriously known as Mohammed Hegazy, is the first Egyptian ever to try legally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his official ID, prompting much shock and outrage in Muslim-majority Egypt.

Ghobrial further cited that Bishoy’s detention—in the execution room no less—is illegal, prompted solely by malicious charges against him, all of which stem from his original attempt to formally change his religious identity.

In the words of his lawyer: “Bishoy is imprisoned in the execution room in violation of the law.  Trumped up charges against him have not been proven and he is being treated even worse.  He has not seen the light [of day] since being released from Minya’s misdemeanor court.”

Bishoy was arrested in July 2014.  Then, the judge in Minya cited “disturbing the peace by broadcasting false information” as the reason for sentencing the apostate, who in the weeks before was documenting political unrest in Egypt brought on by numerous Islamic attacks on Christians.   He was eventually released, but then immediately scooped up again by State Security acting on behalf of Cairo, now under the charge of insulting the Islamic faith.

Bishoy’s lawyer further said that “the [current] judge is behaving in a prejudiced manner in this case because Bishoy had public announced his conversion to Christianity.”  He stressed the “need for attention to this case, and escalating it, so everyone knows what this convert is being exposed to.”

Bishoy has been imprisoned for nearly six months, without any action being done in his case.  He is being held on charges of “contempt to the Islamic religion” and reportedly spreading “false news” about the existence of State Security “torture chambers” where Muslim converts to Christianity are detained and tortured.  Bishoy apparently refuses to recant this claim (quite possibly because he himself is now experiencing it first hand).

As lawyer Karam Ghobrial maintains, it is clear that the real reason his client is being tortured in prison—where he is being held illegally under ever morphing charges—has to do with what made Bishoy Armia, formerly Mohammed Hegazy, notorious in Egypt in the first place: his audacity not only to convert to Christianity, but to try formally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his ID card, prompting much enmity for him in Egypt.

In short, Bishoy is just another prisoner of conscience, just another born Muslim who wishes to be Christian—but whose actions have been deemed offensive to the state.  His story occurs with great frequency all around the Islamic world.  In nearby Iran, for example, Iranian-American Christian pastor Saeed Abedini—also seen as an apostate agitator—continues to rot in prison.

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  • Bamaguje

    And Egypt is supposed to be a “moderate” Muslim nation.
    The Obama administration which vigorously defends Muslim right to exclusively worship at Judaism’s holiest site… is loudly silent on the persecution and genocide of Middle east Christians.

    • John Crawford

      There is no such thing, of course, as a “moderate” Muslim nation. The Left previously pointed to Indonesia, but of course they were shown the truth and rarely trot that one out any more.
      Semper fi

  • mark

    No such thing as a moderate muslim either and the simple evidence is that they ALL lie to disguise islams history, its mainstream teachings (quran, hadith and sira) and its evil agenda against us.

    At the moment am thinking of the muslims in parliment that did warfare lying to try to shut down islam teachings being exposed via Lord Pearsons comment that the Lee Rigby murderer referred to 22 verses of the quran. They also tried to threaten and intimidate him.

    These people are litterally SATANIC in nature!

    • billobillo54

      Mark: They are Satanic because Islam is the “body” of antichrist.

  • billobillo54

    Christians must understand that the “body” of the antichrist is Islam and the person of the antichrist will be a Muslim. This is clearly taught in the Scriptures. I am a Protestant and can clearly see how the errant belief that the Pope or the Roman Church is the antichrist is undermining our needed response against the emergence and influence of the antichrist. It’s pretty sad that the fact that Islam is murderous, intolerant, cruel, authoritarian, misogynistic, medieval, anti-Jew, anti-Christian, supremacist, abusive, polygamous, cleptocratic, and completely incompatible with the best of the Western world, is not enough to get most Protestants and Catholics to resist Islam. Maybe if we understand that Islam is directly connect to antichrist it might wake us up.

    • Nocturn

      Yes as a Catholic ,I am frequently amazed to see so much wild accusations of the Pope being the anti-christ on the web and elsewhere .All the vitriol is misdirected at the leader of the Catholic Church who is for peace and harmony and the love of Christ.These “self -styled theologian” protestant Christians go on and on endlessly seeking “proof” that the Pope is the real anti-christ from the scriptures. If they are so intelligent and wise it would not be hard for them to see the particular religion that denies the true nature of God , promotes intolerance and hatred and whose prophet openly calls for the killing of all unbelievers,Jews and Christians .Maybe,these Christians are afraid to speak out against the real anti-christ religion for fear of being labelled Islamophobic or being hacked or stabbed to death like Lee Rigby and now Ibolya Ryan .

      • Softly Bob

        I too am a Protestant and I support our Catholic brothers and sisters as fellow Christians. Islam is definitely the religion of Satan.

  • James Patrick Green Hills

    It is people like Bishoy who the west should be allowing to immigrate, not ‘persecuted’ Mo-bro-hood sympathizers. We need more people like Bishoy in the west, immigrants who appreciate what freedom because they have experienced what it is like not to have any freedom.

    • billobillo54

      Amen 1,000,000 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.MARVINFOX.com/ Marvin E. Fox

    Wh aren’t the multi-culturists screaming their heads off about the Muslim Egyptian treatment of Bishoy because of his conversion to Christianity? I suppose Christian converts are not on the multi-culturists agenda.
    I suppose it is too much to ask the Obama administration to mention the matter on Bishoy’s behalf.
    Marvin Fox