Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek has been charged with terrorism-related charges in Egypt after converting to Christianity and criticizing Islam. Photo courtesy of Newsforce via Twitter.
Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek (also spelled Saeid Mansour Abdulraziq) is an Egyptian Christian convert from Islam currently on trial in Cairo on terrorism-related offenses. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty. Under Egypt’s counterterrorism law, founders and leaders of terrorist organizations are subject to the death penalty or life imprisonment.
He converted to Christianity in 2016 and joined the Russian Orthodox Church in Egypt, enduring family rejection, societal hostility, and police intimidation for sharing his faith publicly.
In 2018, he traveled to Russia, where he sought asylum and began publicly criticizing Islam. His online posts angered segments of Russia’s Muslim community, leading to his arrest and a one-year prison sentence. Russia then revoked his asylum and deported him to Egypt in 2024.
That deportation violated international law: the UNHCR had previously determined Abdelrazek qualified for international protection, and a Russian court had issued a binding order on July 17, 2024, prohibiting his deportation. Rights advocates condemn the move as illegal refoulement.
Upon arrival in Egypt, Egyptian authorities held him incommunicado for approximately ten days, then interrogated him about his religious beliefs, pressured him to reconsider his faith, asked him to monitor other converts, and ordered him to delete his social media accounts. Authorities released him with instructions not to speak publicly or proselytize.
In July 2025, he asked a lawyer to help him obtain new identification documents reflecting his Christian faith. He was arrested on July 15 at the Al-Matareiah police station in Cairo. On July 22, Egypt’s State Security Court charged him with “joining a terrorist organisation,” “stirring unrest,” and “spreading false news.”
His trial opened April 21, 2026, before Egypt’s First Criminal Terrorism Circuit in Badr. His legal team submitted motions requesting time to prepare a full defense; the court granted the adjournment and scheduled the next hearing for June 15.
Prosecutors accused Abdelrazek of establishing and leading an unlawful group, joining a banned organization, financing it, promoting beliefs deemed harmful to national unity and social peace, showing contempt for Islam, and challenging its fundamental principles. Apostasy, leaving Islam for another faith, is not formally codified as a crime in Egypt, but is often prosecuted under broadly defined security charges. The pattern spans multiple cases and years.
Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo, a Yemeni refugee and Christian convert, was arrested in December 2021 after joining a Facebook group for Christian converts and appearing on a Christian television channel to discuss his faith. The government held him for over two and a half years without formal charges or a court hearing, citing him as a “security risk” and granting his lawyers minimal access.
He was eventually charged under Article 86 of the Egyptian Criminal Code with joining a terrorist group, under Article 98(f) with contempt of Islam, and under Article 161 with discrimination against Islam. In May 2024, prison authorities placed him in solitary confinement after a fellow prisoner reported him for copying Bible verses on scraps of paper.
In January 2025, Egyptian authorities released Abdo and, in coordination with Canadian and UNHCR officials, facilitated his transfer to Canada. Egyptian judicial authorities did not drop the charges.
Security forces detained Nour Fayez Ibrahim in 2022 after he created a Facebook group debating monotheistic religions. Egypt’s Supreme State Security charged him with “leading a terrorist group” and “showing disrespect to Abrahamic religions,” renewing his detention in 45-day increments pending investigation before the Supreme State Security.
Dr. Augustinos Samaan, 37, a Coptic researcher with a PhD in comparative religion, was arrested at 1:30 a.m. on October 1, 2025, by special-forces officers who confiscated his laptop, phone, books, and personal papers. Following national security interrogation that reportedly included torture, he was initially charged with joining a terrorist organization and spreading false news; prosecutors later amended the charges to “contempt of religion” under Article 98(f).
On January 3, 2026, a court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment with hard labor in a secret proceeding held without notifying his legal counsel or family, without public proceedings, and without granting the defense access to the case file. His lawyers arrived at court three days later expecting a routine detention-renewal hearing and learned only then that the case had already been decided.
Amnesty International reported that security forces arrested Sherif Gaber, 32, a blogger and YouTuber, at his Cairo home on November 3, 2025, and subjected him to enforced disappearance for approximately 56 days before bringing him before a prosecutor. Authorities had targeted Gaber repeatedly since 2013; between 2013 and 2024, courts sentenced him in absentia in three separate trials to one, three, and five years in prison on “contempt of religions” charges.
Between mid-July 2025 and January 1, 2026, Egyptian security forces arrested at least 29 people across six governorates for posting online content that diverged from state-sanctioned religious narratives or for membership in social media groups discussing atheism and agnosticism.
At least four detainees reported torture following arrest, at least 11 were denied legal counsel during interrogation, and one died in custody during that period. Coptic Solidarity identified the structural mechanism: Egypt’s Article 98(f) “contempt of religion” statute functions in practice almost exclusively to shield Islam from critique and is not applied equally to other beliefs, with Egypt treating freedom of religion not as an individual right but as a managed state privilege.
Abdelrazek is scheduled to appear before Judge Mohamed Saeed El-Sherbiny, a jurist associated with severe sentencing in high-profile and politically sensitive cases. Authorities have refused to grant defense counsel access to the case file or supporting evidence.
During his detention, according to USCIRF, authorities and inmates physically and psychologically abused Abdelrazek for his conversion. He has reportedly been coerced into undergoing painful removal of a Christian tattoo and was suspended for hours in a “crucifixion” position. He is held in Cairo’s 10th of Ramadan Prison, where he has reportedly been deprived of basic necessities including adequate food, clothing, and medical care.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has designated Abdelrazek a religious prisoner of conscience, asserting that he is detained for his religious conversion and activity. The USCIRF annual Egypt report pairs his charges with a broader documented pattern of criminalizing belief through the frequent combination of “contempt for Islam” charges with terrorism or banned-group allegations.
Egypt’s population is approximately 111 million, roughly 90% Sunni Muslim and 10% Christian. Egypt ranked 42nd on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
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