7 May 2024 sessions
Misdemeanor Court of Appeal
Al-Khalifa Misdemeanor Court of Appeal postponed consideration of renewing the detention of Khaled Galal Helmy till 11 May, pending investigations in Case No. 1113 of 2024, Al Darb Al-Ahmar misdemeanor, on charges of joining a terrorist group and possessing ammunition.
On 22 April, Al-Darb Al-Ahmar Misdemeanor Court renewed the detention of Khaled Galal Helmy for 15 days.
On February 27, the North Cairo Criminal Court released Helmy and decided to replace detention with a precautionary measure. However, Rowd Al-Farag Police Station did not implement the decision, and Khaled was detained in the department until he was presented with a new case.
Helmy is a 50-year-old mosque custodian from Sahel Rowd Al-Farag.
Criminal Court
The Criminal Court (First Circuit Terrorism) looked at 4 cases of 5 people and decided the following:
- Renewing the detention of Mohamed Mahmoud Amer Abdel Aziz for 45 days, pending investigations of lawsuit No. 1984 of 2021 (Supreme State Security Prosecution).
Abdel Aziz was arrested on October 15, 2021. He was subjected to enforced disappearance for 45 days in an unknown location. The national security investigation report stated that Amer had participated in a media movement attributed to the Muslim Brotherhood “terrorist group,” the same investigation that a warrant for his arrest and summons was issued. Abdel Aziz faces accusations of joining a terrorist group.
- The court renewed the detention of Al-Tantawy’s presidential campaign member, Khaled Abdel Wahed Amin, for 45 days pending investigations of lawsuit No. 191 of 2023 (Supreme State Security) in which he’s accused of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and information that would harm public peace and order, and using a social media account to spread false news and information.
The security forces arrested Amin from his house on August 27 as part of an expanded security campaign that targeted Al-Tantawy’s supporters, members of his campaign, and his relatives and friends.
- Moreover, it renewed the detention of Ahmed Shaker Abou Elrous and Ali Othman Ali for 45 days. Thus exceeding one year in pretrial detention over attending a football match between Al-Ahly and Ghazal El-Mahala.
The security forces arrested Abou Elrous and Ali from Cairo International Stadium on April 5. They transferred them to Nasr City prosecution, which decided to release them on bail after two days; however, the prosecution’s decision didn’t pass. On April 10, the security forces transferred them to be interrogated before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which brought new accusations against them, namely, being a part of a terrorist organization, with knowledge of its aims, committing the crime of financing a terrorist group, spreading false news and statements that would harm public security and order, using an account on social media to spread the false news and information for a terrorist purpose.
The Egyptian authorities continued to target Al-Ahly fans. In the same month, it arrested 30 other fans after a match between Al-Ahly and Al-Ragaa. After this, Al-Ahly club fans demanded a boycott of Cairo International Stadium and burned the fan cards of the Tazkarti website in protest of these arrests. Other fans were subsequently arrested; there were an estimated 39 other fans over these calls.
- In addition, it renewed Hamed Sedeek’s detention for 45 extra days, even though Sedeek has been in custody for four years without bringing him to trial to prove the validity of the accusations against him, the same accusation brought against political activists without concrete evidence, namely joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and information and misusing social media.
The court’s decision came in connection with lawsuit No. 2207 of 2021 (Supreme State Security Prosecution), the second lawsuit where Sedeek is involved as a defendant. Sedeek’s arrest occurred on September 23, 2019; he was presented before the prosecution as a defendant pending the first lawsuit No. 1356 of 2019 and after three years in pretrial detention. The prosecution decided to release him; however, it re-accused him in the second lawsuit only a few days before his release. To practice “rotation,” he had to be kept in prison for a longer period.
Last April, the security forces at Badr prison assaulted the 63 years old Sedeek by beating him with a stick and stomping his face with shoes when he refused to attend his detention order hearing as he was in a poor mental state because his wife passed away and for being rotated in another lawsuit after exceeding the legal period of pretrial detention. His fellow inmates at the prison ward, lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, political activist Ahmed Doma, and Journalist Mohamed Oxygen, tried to defend him. They were all severely beaten, and the prison warden was ordered to transfer them to the disciplinary ward wearing nothing but their underwear as they remained all day without food, drink, or medications till the following day. They were later detained in separate solitary cells without their belongings and deprived of exercise as punishment.
8 May 2024 sessions
Criminal Court
On 8 May, the Criminal Court (First Circuit Terrorism) renewed the detention of 3 persons for 45 days:
- The contractor, Abdel Rahaman Alwany, is pending lawsuit No. 1635 of 2022 (Supreme State Security Prosecution).
Alwany is accused of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and information, and using social media to commit a crime.
Security forces arrested Alwany from his house on the 1st of November 2022, and were illegally detained for a week before being brought before the prosecution.
- Mohamed Ibrahim Abdo, pending investigations of lawsuit No. 2064 of 2023 (Supreme State Security), in which Abdo is involved in posting videos on TikTok criticizing the policies of the current president of the country.
Security forces arrested the 31-year-old Abdo from his house in Monufia Governorate on August 21; he appeared before the prosecution a week after his arrest over accusations of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and using an internet account to commit a crime.
- The enlisted man, Sherif Ahmed Ebrahim, is for 45 days pending investigations of lawsuit No. 2064 of 2023 (State Security) in which Ebrahim is accused of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and information, and using an internet account to commit a crime.
On August 31, the 22-year-old Ebrahim was arrested after he helped a police chief shoot and publish a video on TikTok insulting the Ministry of Interior. The police chief was also arrested and held in custody in the same lawsuit.