Activist Ahmed Douma returns to court in Cabinet clashes trial

Activist Ahmed Douma, currently serving a three-year sentence for protest-related charges, returns to court on Wednesday with 268 other defendants for a hearing in another case related to the clashes that took place in front of the Cabinet building in December 2011.

Douma was sentenced last June, along with leading figures of the April 6 Youth Movement Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, to three years in prison on charges of violating the Protest Law and assaulting security forces.

The charges were brought forward after clashes broke out outside Abdeen Court last November, as Maher was turning himself in after receiving a subpoena for breaking the Protest Law.

Douma returns to court today in a case that has been recently revived after first being referred to court in May 2012, under the rule of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF).

The defendants face charges of vandalism, assaulting police and military personnel, illegal assembly, resisting arrest, obstructing traffic, attempting to break into the Interior Ministry and possession of Molotov cocktails and melee weapons.

Douma’s health deteriorated after beginning a hunger strike shortly after his arrest in November to protest prison conditions.

Nourhan Hefzy, Douma’s wife, reported last Saturday that Douma, along with Maher and Adel, started another hunger strike protesting increased harassment by prison authorities. Hefzy reported that the three have been placed in solitary confinement, and are only allowed out of their cell for two hours a day instead of eight hours. She adds that the authorities also confiscated the radio that was initially allowed in the cells, and stated that the detainees have stopped receiving writing material and letters. Hefzy added that prison authorities and state security have been carrying out periodic raids on political prisoners’ cells up to three times a week, confiscating written documents and possessions.

Hefzy reported on Tuesday that Douma broke his hunger strike after a visit from the deputy interior minister for prison affairs, who promised to respond to their requests.