Coptic Solidarity (CS) is calling for the immediate release of Said Mansour Abdelrazek (Sa’id Abu Mustafa), a Christian charged with terrorism for leaving Islam.

Abdelrazek was interrogated and arrested in July after returning to Egypt from Russia.

The Russian Government reportedly imprisoned, then cancelled the Christian convert’s asylum status because “Muslims threatened societal unrest.”

His crime was publicly criticising Islam.

Egypt’s Islamic regime was just as hostile. 

This is despite Muslim lobby groups in the U.S claiming that religious freedom in Egypt has never been brighter than it is today (see here).

Accused of ‘stirring unrest and spreading fake news,’ the Egyptian government detained Abdelrazek, then falsely charged him with joining a terrorist organisation.

In an exclusive interview published by the Canberra Declaration, Abdelrazek’s fiancé, Sophie, who lives in Sydney, told Kurt Mahlburg, “Abdelrazek grew up Muslim. He wasn’t the kind of person to just accept things blindly.

“He studied every sect of Islam, he asked a lot of questions, but something never felt right to him.”

Finding a Bible, Abdelrazek “read and read.”

“Two years later, in 2018, he was baptised in a Baptist church in Alexandria,” Sophie explained.

His problems with the Egyptian government began when his mother “reported him to State Security.”

“Local sheikhs and government authorities took everything: his wife, his little boy Mustafa, his shop, and his money,” recounted Sophie.

“State Security,” she said, “harassed him relentlessly.”

Although he eventually managed to flee to Russia, they arrested him over a private social media video mocking the Quran.

Somehow, Muslims got hold of it and spread their usual rage and death threats everywhere.

“The Russian government came down hard on him, removed his Christian lawyer and replaced him with a Muslim one, then deported him,” Sophie added.

Since his imprisonment in Egypt, there have been no trials, and his lawyer, “Saeed Fayaz, is effectively blocked from properly representing him.”

For Abdelrazek, prison conditions are bleak.

“He’s not treated like a regular prisoner — he’s in near-total isolation, denied basic necessities like food, clothing and even light. He has been wearing the same clothes for weeks.”

The deliberate deprivation “is not just physical torture. It’s psychological manipulation. They’re trying to crush him,” Sophie concluded.

(Read Sophie’s full interview with the Daily Declaration here.)

So far, 628 people have signed Coptic Solidarity’s petition requesting Abdelrazek’s immediate release.

They need 5,000.

CS is also calling for the Egyptian government to honour the country’s constitutional commitments to religious freedom for the “Abrahamic faiths.”

This includes “ending the persecution of Christian converts.”

“Egypt’s Constitution,” CS explained, “promises absolute freedom of belief—but Said’s case shows this right is denied to those who leave Islam.”

As it stands, Abdelrazek’s arbitrary imprisonment is a reminder of Egypt’s failure to honour constitutional freedoms in favour of Islam.

Please consider standing with Coptic Solidarity and the persecuted Church by signing their petition here.

Following your conscience and embracing Christ shouldn’t be a crime.