Egyptian Christian Convert Faces Possible Death Sentence, Lawyer Says

Egyptian prosecutors are seeking execution or a 25-year prison sentence for Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek, a convert from Islam to Christianity who has been detained since July 2025, according to his lawyer, Said Fayez. His fiancée, Sophia, told The Jerusalem Post that he has suffered torture and repeated pressure to abandon his Christian faith. His lawyers are scheduled to present their defense on December 8, 2026.

Coptic Solidarity, a nongovernmental organization, said Abdelrazek faces accusations of contempt for Islam, inciting public disorder, spreading false information and membership in a banned terrorist organization. Fayez’s office maintains that the alleged organization is fictitious and that the prosecution stems from Abdelrazek’s refusal to renounce Christianity. Sophia said authorities have not identified the organization he allegedly joined.

Sophia, an Australian-Egyptian citizen, met Abdelrazek through social media, where both posted about Christianity. They first met in person in 2021. According to her account, his interest in Christianity began when he encountered the Sermon on the Mount in an open Bible at a neighbor’s shop. Although initially angered by the passage, he returned to discuss it and later studied with a Protestant Baptist church. He was baptized around 2017.

After Abdelrazek publicly announced his conversion, his mother reported him to security services, Sophia said. Authorities then spent hours trying to persuade him to return to Islam. In 2023, he was arrested over allegations that he had posted videos showing desecration of the Quran and served a year in prison. He subsequently fled to Russia but was deported despite a Russian High Court ruling allowing him to stay and UNHCR recognition of his asylum case.

Sophia said Abdelrazek was briefly detained after his return to Egypt in 2024. During that detention, she alleged, authorities tried to remove his cross tattoo and restrained him against a wall in a crucifixion position, without nails. She also said they sought to recruit him as an informant on priests and converts, while pressuring him to use his social media accounts to attack Christianity.

Authorities released Abdelrazek into his family’s custody on condition that he return to Islam, Sophia said, and required Islamic classes when he refused. She described growing pressure at home to participate in religious practices, prompting him to borrow money for an apartment. The couple planned to marry at the Australian Embassy during an April 2025 visit, but Sophia’s illness delayed the trip. His subsequent rearrest followed a social media post announcing plans to seek a change to his legal religious status.

Sophia said she spends about 11,000 Egyptian pounds each month arranging for food and clothing to be smuggled into 10th of Ramadan Prison. She said their lawyer had visited Abdelrazek only once, in January, while she and others were barred from visiting or sending necessities directly. She has also faced online abuse and death threats while campaigning for his release.

Her appeals now focus on international intervention, particularly from the United States and the Netherlands. She hopes Washington will make its approximately $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt conditional on Abdelrazek’s release and better treatment of religious minorities. She also hopes Dutch authorities will consider a prisoner exchange.

Coptic Solidarity described the proceedings as a test of religious freedom in Egypt. The organization cited other Christians facing imprisonment or prosecution under blasphemy and national security provisions, warning that a severe sentence could encourage similarly harsh prosecutions of religious converts.