When Mohamed Ali began propping his cellphone on his desk in Spain, he did not expect the resulting videos to trigger an uprising in his home country of Egypt. (The videos by the contractor-turned-whistleblower, which revealed lavish spending by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his family, eventually led to rare nationwide anti-government protests last September.) What he did expect, however, was that his family would be targeted by the regime as a way to discredit him.
On Egyptian TV, his father publicly disowned him. His brother and mother accused him of robbing his late brother. “My family lied,” Ali told me in a phone call from Spain. “They are pro-Sisi. I was not surprised by what they said, we are in a dictatorship. From what I know, they were told exactly what to say.” On several occasions, Ali’s father called him and demanded he publicly apologize for the videos. “He asked me why I would do such a thing; we were happy. He told me they will kill me,” Ali said. “I cried, but there’s no going back.” Last month, news emerged that Egypt is seeking his extradition from Spain for alleged tax evasion as Sisi continues a relentless campaign to silence critics abroad.
