19 March 2024 sessions
Supreme State Security Prosecution
The Supreme State Security Prosecution decided to renew the detention of Mahmoud Gamal Abo Sree, for 15 days pending investigations of lawsuit No. 508 of 2023 (Supreme State Security).
Security forces arrested Abo Sree On December 19, 2023, from Borg ElArab Airport while returning from abroad to spend a vacation with his family; he was brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on December 20, 2023, and was charged with joining a terrorist group while knowing its purposes, and publishing and broadcasting false news and information that would harm security and public order—and using an account on international information networks for publishing and posting false news and information.
It is also worth noting that he was not confronted with any seizures, nor was he confronted with any news or publications concerning him.
Criminal Court
- The Cairo Criminal Court (First Circuit Terrorism) renewed Mohamed Mahmoud Amer Abdel Aziz’s detention 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 Criminal Court (First Criminal and Terrorism Circuit) decided to renew 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,” he had to be kept 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.
- The Cairo Criminal Court (First Circuit Terrorism) renewed the detention of Ahmed Husine Ahmed Abostit for 45 days, pending lawsuit No. 2468 of 2023 (Supreme State Security). Security forces had arrested him on October 24, 2023, in Abdel Moneim Riad Square due to his participation in the demonstrations in support of Palestine on October 20.
It is worthy to note that the prosecution accused him of joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its purposes and participating in a gathering intended to harm public safety and order, changing the government system through force, and forcing a public employee to refrain from performing one of his duties through intimidation and violence. To accomplish a terrorist purpose, the defendant destroyed public and private property, both immovable and movable.
20 March 2024 sessions
Supreme State Security Prosecution
The Supreme State Security Prosecution decided to release the journalist at Aljazeera Mubasher, Rabea Elsheikh, pending investigations of case No. 1365 of 2018 (State Security) after more than 2 years in detention.
Elsheikh was arrested in August 2021 while heading back to Egypt from Doha, the Supreme State Security Prosecution interrogated him on the same day in the current case. Alsheikh faces accusations of joining a terrorist group, financing the activities of that group, and spreading false news.
Criminal Court
- The Criminal Court (First Circuit Terrorism) 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 (First Circuit Terrorism) renewed 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.
