11 February Sessions
Criminal Court
- The Criminal Court (Third Circuit) decided to renew 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.
- The Criminal Court (third Circuit) decided to continue the detention of Ahmed Shaker Abou Elrous and Ali Othman Ali for 45 days. Thus exceeding 8 months 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, estimated at 39 other fans over these calls.
- The Criminal Court (Third Criminal and Terrorism Circuit) renewed Hamed Sedeek’s detention for 45 extra days, even though 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.
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 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.
12 February Sessions
Criminal Court
- The Criminal Court renewed Hany Baset Soliman’s detention for 45 days pending investigations of lawsuit No. 2203 of 2023 (Supreme State Security). Soliman was arrested on the 50th anniversary of October’s victory over chanting and filming.
Soliman faces accusations of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and using an account on social media to commit a crime.
- North Banha Criminal Court (Second Circuit) refused the Prosecution appeal against the release of the student Ahmed Saeed Ahmed Saad al-Sawaf pending investigations in Case No. 8297 of 2023 (Shebin el-Qanater Administrative) on charges of joining a terrorist group while knowing its purposes.
On 11 February 2024, the Prosecution filed an appeal against a decision by the Six Circuit to release Ahmed, which was issued on the same day.
The prosecution started investigating Al-Sawaf’s case in the October 8, 2023 session. It challenged him with investigations only without showing him any evidence to support the validity of those investigations.
Al-Sawaf served a ten-year aggravated prison sentence in implementing a ruling against him in Case No. 8615 of 2013, the Azbakeya felonies, known in the media as the Al-Fath Mosque incidents.
On August 16, 2023, while completing his release procedures, Al-Sawaf was unlawfully re-detained in a location unknown to his family and lawyer until he was presented to the prosecution, pending the new case on October 8.
Al-Sawaf was Dismissed from his university due to his imprisonment, while his lawyers took steps to have him return.
13 February Sessions
Criminal Court
Cairo Criminal Court (Third Circuit) delayed its hearing session to consider the detention of employee Mohamed Mahmoud Abou Mandour, for one month due to the impossibility of holding it.
Abou Mandour has been detained since November 2022, pending investigation in lawsuit No. 2216 of 2022 (State Security), which included posts on social media about 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.
14 February Sessions
Supreme State Security Prosecution
The Supreme State Security Prosecution decided to renew the detention of Muhammad Fathallah Rushdi Zayan for 15 days pending investigations in Case No. 2727 of 2023, Supreme State Security, on charges of participating with a terrorist group in achieving its goals, publishing and broadcasting fake news and statements that would harm security and public order, and using an account on the internet for the purpose of publishing and broadcasting fake news and statements.
Zayan was arrested on October 15, 2023, from his home in Beni Suef Governorate based on an arrest warrant in another case No. 2255 of 2023, Supreme State Security, the case of electoral process papers of potential candidate Ahmed Al-Tantawi. The prosecution investigated him on the same day, and he was detained pending investigations.
On October 25, 2023, the prosecution excluded him from referral to trial in the electoral process papers case and copied his papers to the case in which he is now being held in pretrial detention.
Zayan was confronted with a video clip that he posted on his Facebook account from the conference of the potential candidate at the time, Ahmed Al-Tantawi, during his visit to Beni Suef Governorate. A TV channel took that video and broadcast it on its screen.
15 February Sessions
Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal set 4 March as a date for a hearing in the appeal of Ahmed Muhammad Ramadan Al-Tantawi and 22 members of his electoral campaign against their one-year imprisonment in Case No. 16336 of 2023, Matareya misdemeanors, which is popular as electoral process papers.
On 6 February 2024, The Matareya Misdemeanor Court ruled to imprison Ahmed Muhammad Ramadan Al-Tantawi and his presidential campaign manager, Muhammad Musa Abu Al-Diyar, for one year with a bail of 20,000 pounds for each of them to suspend execution until appeal, and one year’s imprisonment for 21 of the other defendants in the case. The court also ruled to ban Ahmed Al-Tantawi from running for parliamentary elections for 5 years.
The court has charged El-Tantawy and his campaign manager with Participating through incitement, agreement, and supplying the twenty-one other defendants with one of the electoral process papers (Form No. 4) and printing and circulating it without the permission of the competent authority, as well as charging the rest of the defendants with printing and circulating an electoral process paper (Form No. 4) without a license.
The 21 defendants were already referred to the prosecution after arresting them last October on the grounds of participating with a terrorist group and circulating electoral papers.
