In February 2018 Egyptian artist Ramy Essam released a song and music video, Balaha. Lyricist of the song, poet Galal El-Behairy has been imprisoned in Egypt since. Director of the music video Shady Habash died in custody after being jailed for almost 800 days.

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Galal El-Behairy

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On 31st of July 2018, Galal El-Behairy was sentenced to 3 years in prison and a 10 000 L.E. fine by the Military Court in Cairo, for his unpublished book of poetry, The Finest Women On Earth. Galal also faced charges in a Civilian Court case concerning Balaha, which he has been released from. After serving the 3 years sentence, Galal stays imprisoned in Egypt.​ 

5 March 2023 marked 5 years since the arrest of Galal El-Behairy. The same day, Galal started a hunger strike, to get out of prison alive, or not alive. Shortly after he quit drinking water on 1 June, he had to be hospitalized as he was in need of urgent medical assistance. Avant-Garde Lawyers urge the United Nations Working Group to take urgent action to ensure Galal's right to life and to physical and mental integrity are respected and to secure his timely release.

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Read Galal's poetry from behind bars >

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Shady Habash

After almost 800 days in prison, photographer and music video director Shady Habash died in Tora Prison, Cairo, on May 1st 2020, because of medical negligence.

Shady was imprisoned since March 2018, because of directing the music video for Egyptian artist Ramy Essam’s song Balaha. Shady didn’t have anything to do with the content of the song. As an award-winning filmmaker Shady was constantly working on Middle Eastern projects, and Balaha was just one of the many music videos that Shady directed in his career. Read more >

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Read more about
Balaha case >

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