Today, August 16th marks the birthday of translator and activist Marwa Arafa and her fourth birthday anniversary inside Qanater Women’s Prison, which is known for its harsh detention condition away from her family and her five-year-old daughter, Wafaa, who spent more than half her life away from her mother, when Wafaa was only a year and a half old; she was psychologically traumatized after the security forces stormed Arafa’s house.
Marwa has been behind prison walls since April 2020, when the security forces arrested her after searching her house and confiscating sums of money and her mobile phone without presenting a permit, and after two weeks of enforced disappearance, Marwa appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution and was detained pending lawsuit No. 570 of 2020
Without trial or evidence proving the accusations leveled against her; likewise, the accusations usually leveled against political activists, such as joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its purposes, committing a terrorist financing crime, and despite the absence of any legal justification for her continued detention; the Criminal Court continues to renew her detention for more than three years, her last detention renewal hearing was on August 13th, in violation of the law that stipulates that the period of pre-trial detention should not exceed a maximum of two years, which is the period that Arafa has already exceeded since May 9, 2022.
The association for freedom of thought and expression renews its demands for the immediate release of Arafa, who did not commit any crime, to face this fate. It also calls on the Presidential Pardon Committee to include Marwa in the list of those released soon; so that she can live her normal life and take care of her daughter, who is in dire need of her.
