ACTION ALERT

For Immediate Release
May 8, 2005

Action Alert: Demand Immediate Release of Wael Khalil and his Comrades

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition demands the immediate release of Wael Khalil, a reform activist and founding member of Al-Awda-Egypt, and his comrades from the notorious Tora Prison. Mr. Khalil was one of forty demonstrators who were arrested on April 27, 2006 during protests in support of Egyptian judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hesham Bastawisi, who are on trial for exposing the role played by their fellow judges in rigging last year's Egyptian parliamentary elections. Al-Awda has learned that Wael and his comrades are on their third day of an open-ended hunger strike.

Along with being a founding member of Al-Awda-Egypt, Mr. Khalil, was co-founder of the 20 March Popular Campaign for Change. A software engineer by profession, the forty-year-old Khalil is an active member of the Egyptian anti-war and anti-globalization movement. He firmly believes in the organic link between the struggle for reform and freedom at home, and the struggle for Palestinian rights, first and foremost the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Al-Awda affirms its solidarity with Wael and all Egyptian and Arab political prisoners. We call on the Mubarak regime to free Wael and his comrades immediately and without delay.

Send messages demanding the immediate release of Wael Khalil and all other Egyptian reform activists urgently to:

* Mr. Nabil Fahmy, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the US
3521 International Ct. NW
Washington DC 20008
Phone (202) 895 5400
Fax (202) 244 5131, (202) 244 4319
E-mail: embassy@egyptembdc.org
http://www.egyptembassy.us/

* Counselor Maher 'Abd al-Wahid, Public Prosecutor
Dar al-Qadha, al-'Ali Ramses Street
Cairo, Egypt
Fax: 202 577 4716

Please cc your correspondence to alerts@al-awda.org

Information from the Committee to Protect Journalists:
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/egypt27apr06na.html

Background on the judges' anti-fraud campaign from Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/25/egypt13269.htm

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC
are tax-deductible.