American Father Trapped in Egypt for Six Years

Hurghada, Egypt, March 5, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Today marks the sixth anniversary of Missourian John Forsythe’s arrest in Egypt. Seperated from his daughter and largely ignored by the US state department, his friends and family are starting a campaign to allow him to leave Egypt and reunite with his daughter.

Stranded in Egypt through revolutions and unrest

Friends and family start campaign to help Kansas City native who today started his seventh year unable to leave Egypt to visit his six year daughter or escape the political turmoil.

John Forsythe

John Forsythe was living with his family in Hurghada, Egypt where he made his living providing IT support to local businesses. After refusing to work with some shady businessmen he found himself arrested, accused of everything from owning illegal IT equipment to being an american spy.

When it become clear that trouble was brewing in the Middle Eastern country John sent his wife and daughter away from Egypt to safety, but was unable to follow because of his travel ban. Even when the state deparment recommended that all Americans leave Egypt for their own safety in 2011, John was forced to stay and lay low. He moved to Cairo to be better placed to plead his innocence in court and spent the next years and all of his savings fighting to clear his name.

John fled Cairo after anti-American sentiment reached fever pitch in the run-up to Egypt’s second revolution in June 2013, culminating in the stabbing of American Chris Stone. Since then he has been living on the charity of friends in the relatively safe tourist resort of Hurghada.

“I had to leave Cairo in a hurry, the atmosphere changed and people were shouting anti- american propoganda in the streets. Thank god for my friends in Hurghada who have kept a roof over my head and food in my stomach for the last two years”, said John.

John was finally found not guilty on almost all counts, but was convicted of being ignorant of the law. He was ordered to pay a fine and court costs totalling 240,100 Egyptian Pounds (about USD 31.5k today). The Egyptian Authorities will not give John permission to work or leave the country leaving him unable to earn a living or the money to pay his fine.

Indefinitely seperated from his family

The hardest part of this ordeal for John is being seperated from his six year old daughter Maya, who he talks to every day on Skype, the closest thing he can get to being part of her young life.

John says “There is nothing worse than seperating a father and daughter. I think of her always, I can’t believe I am missing the most important years of her life. It tears me up when I think about it. I need to be there with her.”

Campaign to reunite John and Maya

With the US state department unwilling to intervene on John’s behalf, claiming that they do not interfere in soverign nations’ judicial processes, John’s friends and family have decided to start a campaign to raise awareness of his plight and raise the money he needs to pay his fine and leave the country to restart his life with his daughter. Using the hashtag #Catch22Egypt and facebook page “Reunite John & Maya” they are promoting a gofundme campaign to raise enough money for John to settle his fine and pay for a flight ticket to reunite him with his six year old daughter. 

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