Egyptian American Detained in UAE Could Be Extradited to Egypt for Criticizing Government

An Egyptian American man who was detained last week in the United Arab Emirates after criticizing Egypt ahead the COP27 climate conference could be extradited to the country of his birth. Sherif Osman, 46, has been held in prison since his arrest. His Finnish American fiancée Saija Virta, who was with him in Dubai at the time of his arrest, told Reuters that she spoke to him on Sunday. “He tells me he is being treated well … (but) we are all very shocked and traumatized,” Virta said. He was in Dubai to visit his sister, who lives in the emirate, and his mother who had planned to visit from Egypt; she was prevented from leaving Egypt with no explanation given. A UAE official told the news service that officials in the UAE were working to get the “requisite legal documentation required in preparing the extradition file.” The official did not say to which country or if a specific extradition request had been made, according to Reuters. Virta said that the public prosecution told her that Egypt had requested Osman’s detention on several charges including “speaking negatively against government institutions; he recently backed calls for a peaceful protest against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during the COP27 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheik. Osman has a following on YouTube of 35.2k subscribers for his commentary on the political situation in Egypt.