EGYPT COURT ORDERS RELEASE THREE HUNGER STRIKES ACTIVISTS
Cairo, 20 Dhulqo’dah 1435/15 September 2014 (MINA) – A Cairo criminal court has ordered the release on bail of prominent activists Alaa Abdel-Fattah and two others who were appealing 15-year sentences for breaking a controversial protest law in November 2013.
Abdel-Fattah, Mohamed Abdel-Rahman aka Noubi and Wael Metwally were sentenced to 15-years in prison and fined LE100,000 on charges of organising an illegal protest, rioting, destruction of public property and using violence against security forces.
The court also decided to refer a personal video of Abdel-Fattah to the prosecution to investigate who was responsible for it behind shown in court as evidence against the activist on 10 September, Egypt’s Ahram quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The decision of the prosecutors to use the video – which showed Abdel-Fattah’s wife belly dancing at a family party, according to those who attended last week’s session – as part of the evidence against the defendant sparked outrage by Alaa and his lawyers in court. Defence lawyer and prominent activist Khaled Ali questionedboth the relevance and morality of showing it.
The trio, along with 22 others, was sentenced in absentia in June.
Although the trio has been released, they are still appealing the 15-year prison sentence for violating the protest law – one of many cases in which defendants are being tried under the law, passed last November by interim authorities.
The trio were arrested outside the court when the verdict was delivered. In August, they began a hunger strike to protest their convictions.
Abdel-Fattah’s lawyer added that Monday’s ruling comes “in accordance with the law,” charging that the in absentia nature of the first verdict was legally questionable because security forces had prevented Abdel-Fattah from entering the courthouse to attend the trial’s proceedings.
Ali, defence lawyer and activist, also welcomed the court’s decision to recuse itself as he says there’s an existing feud between the defendants and the presiding judge, according to Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.
Alaa has started a hunger strike while in detention amid a “decisive moment” that came after visiting his sick father in the hospital, which later passed away.
The statement quoted Abdel-Fattah as saying: “I will not play the role they have drawn for me.” It did not elaborate.
His younger sister, Sanaa, is also on trial for violating a protest law issued last year banning unauthorised demonstrations – deemed restrictive by rights groups.
So far, 123 Egyptians are currently on hunger strike both inside and outside of detention, according to Freedom of the Brave, a movement calling for the release of political detainees.
Inside prisons and detention cells, 59 are on hunger strike while 64 are on hunger strike outside detention in solidarity with the detainees.
According to Freedom of the Brave, of the 64 striking outside detention, 57 are on a full hunger strike while seven are on a partial hunger strike.
Police reports have been filed to document the hunger strikes of some of those outside and inside detention. However, the majority of hunger strikes remain officially undocumented.(T/R04/R03)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
