Detention renewals
2 January sessions
Criminal Court
The Criminal Court (First Criminal and Terrorism Circuit) renewed Mohamed Ramadan Asr’s detention for 45 days pending investigations of lawsuit No. 1976 of 2023 (Supreme State Security), in which Asr is accused over posting videos on TikTok where he spoke of the country’s economic situation and electricity outage.
Asr is 42 years old and works as a property guard in Mokattam. A security force arrested him on August 12 after his videos went viral; the prosecution accused him of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and using an internet account to commit a crime.
3 January sessions
Supreme State Security Prosecution
The Supreme State Security Prosecution renewed the detention of the enlisted man, Sherif Ahmed Ebrahim, for 15 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.
The 22-year-old Ebrahim was arrested on August 31 after he helped a police chief to 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.
Criminal Court
The Criminal Court (First Criminal and Terrorism Circuit) renewed Hamed Sedeek’s detention for 45 extra days, despite that Sedeek has been in custody for four years without bringing him to trial in order 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), which is 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. In order to practice “rotation” to keep him in prison for a longer period of time.
Cairo Criminal Court (First Circuit) renewed the detention of employee Mohamed Mahmoud Abou Mandour, who’s been detained since November 2022, for 45 extra days.
The Court’s decision came in connection with lawsuit No. 2216 of 2022 (State Security), in which Abu Mandour was included over posts on social media about the poor living conditions, but he denied his connection to the posts and the publishing account. He was also tortured in the period following his arrest, with electric shocks and his hands being tied behind his back.
Abo Mandour is currently detained in Badr 1 prison against charges of joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its aims, committing the crime of financing terrorism, inciting to commit a terrorist act, spreading false news and information that would disturb public peace and order, using an account on social media to commit a terrorist crime.
