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| Egyptian, 17, Seeks Asylum After Traveling to Intel Science Fair | Egyptian, 17, Seeks Asylum After Traveling to Intel Science Fair |
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| LOS ANGELES — He was a teenage science prodigy, celebrated throughout Egypt as the “little inventor,” and his latest accomplishment was a trip to the United States to show off his original research at the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. | LOS ANGELES — He was a teenage science prodigy, celebrated throughout Egypt as the “little inventor,” and his latest accomplishment was a trip to the United States to show off his original research at the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. |
| At the fair here, with 1,000 other students from around the world, he presented his project to help paraplegics use computers, heard lectures from Nobel laureates and had his first chance to taste American culture, with private dinners at downtown hot spots and a trip to Universal Studios. | At the fair here, with 1,000 other students from around the world, he presented his project to help paraplegics use computers, heard lectures from Nobel laureates and had his first chance to taste American culture, with private dinners at downtown hot spots and a trip to Universal Studios. |
| Now, Abdullah Assem, 17, is in hiding and refuses to return to Egypt. | Now, Abdullah Assem, 17, is in hiding and refuses to return to Egypt. |
| In the weeks before coming here, Mr. Assem was arrested near Tahrir Square in Cairo on charges of taking part in illegal protests against the military-backed government and burning a police car. Lawyers he consulted say that he denies the charges and that he was simply in the neighborhood to buy electronics, but he was jailed for a week and nearly prevented from flying to Los Angeles. | In the weeks before coming here, Mr. Assem was arrested near Tahrir Square in Cairo on charges of taking part in illegal protests against the military-backed government and burning a police car. Lawyers he consulted say that he denies the charges and that he was simply in the neighborhood to buy electronics, but he was jailed for a week and nearly prevented from flying to Los Angeles. |
| Now, his supporters say, he is seeking asylum, saying that if he returns, he will face prosecution and more jail time. Already, the Egyptian chaperone of his trip confiscated his passport. | |
| The lawyers he spoke to say he believes he was targeted because of his posts on social media criticizing the military takeover last summer. They say Mr. Assem, who declined interview requests through them, denies participating in protests. | The lawyers he spoke to say he believes he was targeted because of his posts on social media criticizing the military takeover last summer. They say Mr. Assem, who declined interview requests through them, denies participating in protests. |
| “I don’t have any political inclination at the moment,” he wrote on Facebook on May 18, while in Los Angeles. “But I absolutely reject the blood, and I’m against the massacres that occurred in Egypt during the past period just like anyone who respects humanity.” | “I don’t have any political inclination at the moment,” he wrote on Facebook on May 18, while in Los Angeles. “But I absolutely reject the blood, and I’m against the massacres that occurred in Egypt during the past period just like anyone who respects humanity.” |
| The news of Mr. Assem’s defection has spread quickly among supporters of the new government. Critics see it as a humiliating reminder of the brain drain Egypt suffered under six decades of autocracy. For the United States, it could pose a delicate decision: to add a new irritant to its badly strained relations with Cairo, or to risk the anger of human rights advocates for sending a juvenile back to a brutal Egyptian prison. | |
| “If I return to Egypt, my future will end in prison, as I am threatened with arrest all the time,” Mr. Assem said in an interview broadcast on Al Jazeera. “If I get jailed in Egypt, I will have no rights. I will be treated inhumanely.” | |
| The number of Egyptians granted asylum in the United States has spiked: In 2012, as Egypt continued to shift from military rule to an elected government, more than 2,500 were given it, up from 752 in 2011, according to the Homeland Security Department. | |
| Several of Egypt’s intellectual stars have voiced concerns with the current government. This year, Emad Shahin, an internationally respected political scientist, left Egypt just before government prosecutors there filed espionage charges against him. Since January, he has been a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. | |
| “There is a lack of tolerance for any kind of dissent, and this case shows the randomness by which the regime cracks down,” Mr. Shahin said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “There’s a deep sentiment among many scholars that this regime is stifling and killing their skills and talents, and this is in the larger context of many young Egyptians’ being targeted.” | “There is a lack of tolerance for any kind of dissent, and this case shows the randomness by which the regime cracks down,” Mr. Shahin said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “There’s a deep sentiment among many scholars that this regime is stifling and killing their skills and talents, and this is in the larger context of many young Egyptians’ being targeted.” |
| Farida Chehata, a lawyer at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that she met with Mr. Assem last Friday, as the science fair was ending, and that he expressed fear about returning to Egypt. She said Mr. Assem told her that state security services had asked his family for his whereabouts several times before his arrest in April. He was jailed for about a week in Cairo and then in Asyut, where he lives. | |
| “During his initial detention, he was very badly mistreated,” Ms. Chehata said. “He was not involved in any kind of protest. But he has been outspoken against the coup and the current government, and we think that’s been the reason that he’s had some issues with government officials.” | “During his initial detention, he was very badly mistreated,” Ms. Chehata said. “He was not involved in any kind of protest. But he has been outspoken against the coup and the current government, and we think that’s been the reason that he’s had some issues with government officials.” |
| Several legal experts said Mr. Assem’s appeal for asylum was likely to be granted, regardless of the political implications. | |
| “As far as American law is concerned, this is a pretty straightforward case,” said Khaled Abou El Fadl, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “He has a very strong case, and in my view, the fact that he was in prison in Egypt for political reasons will help his case. He has already suffered persecution, so this is not merely a fear.” | |
| More alarming, said Mr. Abou El Fadl, also an Egyptian immigrant, are signs that Mr. Assem’s plight is increasingly common. | More alarming, said Mr. Abou El Fadl, also an Egyptian immigrant, are signs that Mr. Assem’s plight is increasingly common. |
| “It was bad for dissidents under Mubarak, and, by all indicators, under the current regime it is even worse,” he said, referring to the former president. “Political prisoners are treated at the whim and will of the state.” |