26 more people ordered detained pending investigation following pro-Palestine protests

The State Security Prosecution ordered over Tuesday and Wednesday the detention of 26 people on the backdrop of pro-Palestine demonstrations on October 20 in Cairo and Alexandria, lawyers told Mada Masr. All of them will be held in remand detention for 10 days pending investigation into charges of joining a terrorist group, unlawful assembly, and broadcasting false news, among other accusations.

The detentions bring the number of those arrested to 40 out of about 114 people who had been rounded up across Cairo and Alexandria after Friday’s protests. These protests were held separately from those organized by parties and entities allied with the state, on the same day, primarily to support President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s leadership and position vis-a-vis Israel’s onslaught against the Gaza Strip. Nearly 70 people of those arrested were released earlier this week, while the whereabouts of some remain unknown, the lawyers said.

Meanwhile, the Popular Campaign to Support the Palestinian Cause, an initiative organized by left-leaning activists, was scheduled to hold a press conference on Thursday in solidarity with imprisoned demonstrators at the headquarters of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party. However, the campaign decided to cancel the conference shortly before it was set to start “in order not to expose more people to danger or possible arrest, in light of an intense security presence around the party’s headquarters,” according to a statement. The initiative also noted “the continuation in recent days of the security campaign” against those protesting in solidarity with Palestine, despite the state’s own call to demonstrate against Israel’s war on Gaza.

The State Security Prosecution ordered on Sunday the detention of 14 people who were arrested in Alexandria for 15 days, on charges of joining a terrorist group, unlawful assembly, and broadcasting false news, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.

Prosecutors issued on Tuesday 15-day remand detention orders pending investigations for another 15 people arrested in Cairo, as well as another person who had been arrested in Alexandria’s Sidi Kerir neighborhood, lawyer Khaled Ali told Mada Masr. On Wednesday, State Security Prosecution also issued 15-day detention orders for 10 more people arrested in Cairo, said lawyer Nabih al-Genady.

According to Ali, detainees from Cairo face additional charges of destroying public and private property and committing a terrorist crime.

Despite releasing 70 of those arrested last Friday without charge, police also apprehended individuals from their homes in the days following the protests, Ali said, but their fate remains unknown.