AFTE’s Weekly Legal Bulletin ( 12: 19 January 2025)| Detention Renewed for 6, Including Journalists, an Assistant Professor, and the Deputy Head of the Strong Egypt Party; State Security Prosecution Refers 3 Defendants to Criminal Trial, and Administrative Court Refers Manar Al-Tantawy’s Appeal to the 18 Circuit

Date : Sunday, 19 January, 2025
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12 January Session

 Administrative Court

  • The Administrative Court (First Circuit) has decided to refer Dr. Manar Al-Tantawy’s appeal to the Eighteenth Circuit, as it is the court that issued the unimplemented ruling in the ongoing legal dispute over her right to obtain the title of Full Professor.

The State Commissioners’ Authority had reserved the lawsuit, case number 73299 for the year 77, for a report on September 26, 2024, after an appeal was made against the negative decision to refrain from executing the judicial ruling in favor of Al-Tantawy, which confirmed her entitlement to the promotion. The roots of the dispute trace back to the Higher Institute of Technology in 10th of Ramadan City’s refusal to implement the Administrative Court’s ruling in case number 61520 for the year 75, which confirmed Al-Tantawy’s right to obtain the title of Full Professor after security forces had rejected her promotion due to her being the wife of imprisoned former journalist Hisham Jaafar.

In January 2024, the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the appeal filed by the Ministry of Higher Education against Al-Tantawy, who faces resistance from the institute’s administration in implementing the promotion ruling and preventing her from assuming the position of Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, a position she had previously held but resigned from in 2016 for health reasons.

 

13 January Sessions

Supreme State Security Prosecution

 

The Supreme State Security Prosecution has decided to refer 4 defendants to criminal trial. They are:

1- Journalist Karim Ebrahim, pending investigations of lawsuit No. 569 of 2020 (Supreme State Security Prosecution). 

Security forces arrested the journalist at Al-Bawaba newspaper and a member of the Journalists Syndicate in April 2020; he was arrested in connection with clashes between the police forces and armed members, which took place in the Alamiria district, his residence place. 

He was also unlawfully detained for a month before being brought before the investigation authorities, which accused him of joining a terrorist group.

 

2Mohamed Al-Qassas, vice president of the Strong Egypt Political Party,  pending his third lawsuit, No. 786 of 2020 (Supreme State Security).

Al-Qassas was arrested in February 2017, coinciding with an extensive arrest campaign launched by the security forces against members and leaders of the Strong Egypt Political Party. He was involved as a defendant in his first lawsuit, No. 977 of 2017, known in the media as the “Mekamleen 2 lawsuit.” after nearly 22 months in pretrial detention, the prosecution ordered his release. However, a few days later, the prosecution interrogated and listed him in a second lawsuit, No. 1781 of 2019, over the same accusations he previously faced.

On August 5, 2020, the Criminal Court ordered Al-Qassas to be released with precautionary measures. Still, the decision was not implemented, and for the third time, Al-Qassas was included in lawsuit No. 786 of 2020, and one more time, over the same accusations. In 2021, the Supreme State Security Prosecution listed Al-Qassas in his fourth lawsuit, No. 440 of 2018. It later referred this lawsuit to the Emergency State Security Court, which sentenced Al-Qassas to 10 years in heavy prison and police observation for five years after the sentence ended.

Al-Qassas is detained over accusations of being a part of a terrorist group with knowledge of this group’s aims and spreading and publishing false news and information.

 

3- Moataz Bellah Hassab Elnaby, pending the investigation of lawsuit No. 965 of 2021 (Supreme State Security), completing three years in pretrial detention. 

Security forces arrested Hasab Elnaby on July 12, 2021, against the grounds of several posts published on a Facebook account attributed to him; despite the fact that Hasab Elnaby denied his ownership of the account.

 

4- Ahmed Al-Tohamy, the assistant professor of political science at the Faculty of Economic Studies and Political Science at Alexandria University, for 45 days pending investigations of lawsuit No. 649 of 2020 (Supreme State Security Prosecution).

Al-Tohamy was arrested on June 3, 2020, and remained under enforced disappearance at a National Security headquarters in Cairo for 17 days. The prosecution’s investigations with Al-Tohamy focused on the accusations of collaborating with the Egyptian activist Mohamed Sultan, who resides in the United States, in the case Sultan filed against the former Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawy. Al-Tohamy denied these accusations before the Prosecution and stated that his security targeting was due to his academic research on the Arab Spring revolutions.

The prosecution accused Al-Tohamy of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media.

 

Criminal Court

The Cairo Criminal Court decided to renew the detention of 3 defendants for 45 days. They are:

1Journalist Khaled Mamdouh Mohamed Ibrahim, pending investigation in case number 1282 of the 2024 Supreme State Security Prosecution.

Mamdouh was arrested on July 16 following a raid on his home, during which he was detained and forcibly disappeared for six days. He was presented to the prosecution on July 21, where he was charged with joining a terrorist group while being aware of its objectives, committing one of the crimes of financing a terrorist group, and spreading and disseminating false news and information that could harm security and public order. The prosecution seized his phone and laptop.

On July 17, AFTE filed a complaint with the Attorney General, numbered 846067 for the year 2024, detailing the events of security forces raiding the home of journalist Khaled Mamdouh and taking him to an unknown place on July 16. 

In the complaint, AFTE stated that a security force searched Mamdouh’s home randomly, and refused to disclose their identities, their affiliation, or the reason for his arrest. 

His family has been unable to determine his place of detention or communicate with him before presenting him to the prosecution.

It is worth mentioning that Mamdouh’s arrest report was dated 20 July 2024, not the date of his actual arrest on 16 July 2024.

 

2- Muhammad Mahmoud Sabry Ismail, pending investigations in Case No. 95 of the 2023 Supreme State Security Prosecution.

Ismail was arrested at the airport while returning to Egypt to visit his family from the UAE, where he works.

Ismail was presented to the Supreme State Security Prosecution on May 27, 2024. 

He was charged with joining a terrorist group while knowing its purposes, publishing and broadcasting false news and statements that would harm security and public order, and using an account on social media for publishing and broadcasting false news and information.

 

3- Hamed Sedeek, pending investigation of lawsuit No. 2207 of 2021 (Supreme State Security Prosecution), the second lawsuit in which Sedeek is a defendant.

Sedeek has been in custody for more than 5 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.

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 longer.

 

14 January Sessions

Criminal Court

The Cairo Criminal Court decided to renew the detention of 3 defendants for 45 days. They are:

1- Mohamed Youssef Mohamed Ibrahim, pending investigations in case No. 4092 of 2024, Supreme State Security.  

On August 24, 2024, Ibrahim was arrested on the street after being contacted by an individual who offered him a job in a Gulf country. He was scheduled to meet this individual on the same day, but Ibrahim was surprised to discover that the person communicating with him was a National Security officer. He remained in an undisclosed location, unknown to his family or lawyer until he was presented to the Supreme State Security Prosecution on August 26, 2024. 

The prosecution has charged Ibrahim with joining a terrorist organization, being aware of its objectives, and with publishing and broadcasting false news and statements that could harm public security and order. He was also charged with using a social media account to publish and broadcast false news and statements.  

It is worth noting that the prosecution confronted Ibrahim with Facebook posts in which he expressed complaints about rising prices and difficult living conditions.

 

2- Ihab Helmy Amin Hussein, pending investigations in Case No. 4092 of 2024 (Supreme State Security).

Security forces arrested the defendant from his home on August 28, 2024, and he was held in an undisclosed location, unknown to his family and lawyers, until he was presented before the prosecution on September 3, 2024. The prosecution charged him with Joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its objectives, Publishing and disseminating false news and information that would harm public security and order, and using a social media account to publish and disseminate false news and information that would harm public security and order.

During the investigation, the prosecution presented him with a confiscated mobile phone, which he admitted belonged to him.

 

3- The contractor, Abdel Rahaman Alwany, 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 was illegally detained for a week before being brought before the prosecution.

Rifai has not been presented with any publications or evidence supporting these accusations. 

 

16 January Session

Supreme State Security Prosecution

The Supreme State Security Prosecution has decided to detain a defendant for 15 days pending investigations. He is:

Serag faces several charges, including joining a terrorist group, committing a terrorist financing offense, spreading false news and statements, and using an online platform to promote a terrorist act.

Serag was arrested after conducting an interview with Nada Mougheeth, the wife of artist Ashraf Omar, on the “Zat Masr” website channel. During the interview, Mougheeth alleged that police forces who arrested her husband seized money from their home during the raid.

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