Name: Sabry Anwar Mohamed Abdelhalim
Occupation: Journalist, El Badil website
Date of arrest: 21 February 2016
Place of detention: Gamasa prison
Legal status: Renewed detentions by Damietta prosecution
Case number: 205/2015
He was arrested from his house in Damietta. He remained in forced disappearance until the
Interior Ministry announced in a statement on March 16 that he had been arrested with the
permission of the State Security Prosecution and was being held in custody, after he appeared at
the security camp in Damietta on 2 March 2017, where he was interrogated in the absence of his
lawyers. The prosecution refused to brief the lawyers on the record and the charges. However, the
journalist told his lawyer that they accused him of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news
and disturbing public peace.
According to the testimony of his lawyer to AFTE, he was tortured and asked the prosecution in the
first interrogation to be examined by forensic medicine and his request was rejected. He also
developed health problems in prison (kidney stones). A request was submitted to have him
examined by a doctor. Although the request was approved to have him examined by the prison
doctor, the prison administration refused to grant him access to medical care.
His detention has been continuously renewed over the past 22 months. After two months the
allowed duration for pretrial detention would come to an end, according to article 148 of the law of
criminal procedures.
