Khaled al-Qazzaz

Khaled Al-Qazzaz is an educator, philanthropist, and a human rights activist based in Egypt and Canada. He is a Canadian-educated Mechanical Engineer, and former school director. Khaled was a staffer, bureaucrat, and civil servant of the democratically elected government led by Mohamed Morsi in Egypt between. Though the government was chosen by the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Khaled is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Khaled was forcibly detained by the Egyptian military On July 3, 2013 along with the president and eight other government aides. Khaled remained in an unknown military location for five and a half months, during which time the Egyptian regime refused to acknowledge that it was holding Khaled or to confirm his whereabouts, putting him outside the protection of the law. Khaled was transferred to Tora Prison on December 17, 2014 and held in solitary confinement for nine months. On October 26, 2014, Khaled continued his detention in a private hospital for three months due to injuries sustained as a result of the extreme conditions of his confinement. As a result of efforts spearheaded by his Canadian wife Sarah Attia with the Free Khaled Al-Qazzaz Campaign, Khaled was released on January 11, 2015. Despite his release and cleared legal position, Khaled had been unable to return to Canada for unknown reasons. Khaled awaited another 19 months for a return to Canada and was in need of immediate medical attention. Toronto-born Sarah Attia and the Free Khaled al-Qazzaz campaign had been calling on Canadian and Egyptian governments as well as the international community to urgently assist in securing Khaled’s immediate return to Canada.