After more than 600 days in pretrial detention, Aya Hegazy’s trial postponed for 4th time

Abdeen Criminal Court postponed the trial of Egyptian-American Aya Hegazy, who authorities accuse of running an unlicensed organization and inciting street children to protest against the regime, to February 17. This is the fourth time Hegazy's trial session has been delayed in the case. She has been held in pretrial detention for over 600 days, and will continue to be detained, along with six other defendants, until the trial resumes. 

Hegazy, her husband Mohamed Hassanein and other staff members were arrested in May 2014 for their work with the Belady Foundation, and were accused of illegally running an association that allegedly holds children against their will, abuses them and pays them to participate in pro-Brotherhood protests. Hegazy and her family have vehemently denied the charges leveled against them.

Hegazy and Hassanein founded Belady in September 2013, an NGO that has organized projects and campaigns on sanitation, combatting sexual harassment and the rehabilitation of street children. Their Facebook page shows the defendants organizing activities for children, including games, picnics and group activities.

A photograph of today's trial session circulated on social media showing Hegazy’s husband giving her flowers while they were held in the courtroom cage, on the occasion of Valentine's day. Social media users called the image "heartbreaking," and demanded the release of all defendants in the case, saying that the charges leveled against them are unfounded, using the hashtag #Free_Belady and #Free_Aya.

Twenty-five human rights organizations, including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and the Nazra Center for Feminist Studies have issued a statement calling for the release of Belady’s staff.

The rights organizations stated that they “strongly condemn the ongoing pretrial detention of Aya Hegazy, her husband Mohamed Hassanein, and five others — Sherif Talaat, Amira Farag, Ibrahim Abd Rabbo, Karim Magdy, and Mohamed al-Sayed — for 650 days in connection with the Belady Foundation for Street Children. This is yet another example of the continued suppression of volunteer action and the quashing of youth and civil society initiatives. The undersigned organizations demand that all persons held in connection with the case be released and all charges against them dropped.”

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Aya Hegazy's trial was before the Cairo Criminal Court. It has been amended to reflect that the trial is being heard by the Abdeen Criminal Court.