Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Press Release
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The Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue welcomed the decision of the Second Chamber of the Criminal Court held at the Tora Court Complex, Tuesday, November 3, 2020, headed by Chancellor Moataz Khafaji, to release 461 defendants held in the custody of 19 cases, including the cases 1338, 1413 for the year 2019 restricting the security of a state known in the media for the events of September 20, and case No. 1739 for the year 2018 restricting the security of a state known in the media for the events of September 20, and case No. 1739 for the year 2018.
The decisions were made between the release of some and the replacement of pretrial detention for a large number of detainees, including journalists, activists, and politicians, in connection with various cases.
All defendants in the cases face charges of broadcasting, publishing, and broadcasting false news and statements, misuse of Facebook social media, and the involvement of a terrorist group knowingly and promoting its purposes. In this way, all those held in Cairo prisons in connection with this case have been released, and there are still about 70 other defendants whose renewals are being considered in the provinces and placed in prisons outside Cairo.
One of the most prominent defendants released was journalist Sayed Abdellah after being imprisoned for more than a year in connection with case No. 1338 of 2019, which limited the security of the supreme state known in the media to the “events of September 20, 2019.” Activist Sameh Saudi in case No. 1338 of 2019 State Security, blogger journalist Mohammed Ibrahim Radwan, known as “Oxygen”, after about 14 months in pretrial detention. In case No. 1356 of 2019, journalist Haitham Hassan, on charges in case No. 586 for the year 2020 restricted the security of the state supreme, and two days ago the television cameraman Sameh Hanin and Haitham Mahjoub, a journalist for al-Masri al-Youm newspaper, were evacuated.
Among the most prominent defendants were political activists who were released: Radwan Ahmed Shamroukh, Mustafa Abdul Wahab Hussein, Ziad Abu Al-Fadl, Abdul Rahman Issam, Ibrahim Medhat, Ahmed Mohi, Sharif Sabra, and labor leader RashadKamal.
It is worth mentioning that the Supreme State Security Prosecution decided not to appeal the decisions issued on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, by the Criminal Court to release those presented at today’s hearing, and therefore the decisions to release the release became final and enforceable
The Forum for Dialogue foundation called for the continuation of these positive steps and a review of all positions of those held in pretrial detention pending cases and not involved in cases of violence and their release.
