Alexandria professors released after 8 months without charge

The General Prosecution ordered the release of 16 people held in Alexandria on Saturday, including university professors Sherif Farag and Mahmoud Abdel Wahed, according to a statement by the Freedom to the Brave group.

Farag and Abdel Wahed were arrested from their homes in November 2013 and were held pending investigation for eight months. They were never referred to trial. 

The professors, along with 10 other colleagues, were suspected of illegal assembly, unlawful violence, attempted murder, vandalism and belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood — which was banned and declared a terrorist organization in December — during protests against the bloody dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square sit-ins last August.

They were held in relation two cases, one concerning events that occurred on August 14 and another concerning events that occurred on August 16. They were ruled out of the former weeks ago, Freedom to the Brave’s statement said.

Farag’s case had raised concerns among human rights groups, who accused the general prosecution of abusing the power of detention by repeatedly remanding suspects into custody for unspecified amounts of time, in violation of the law.  

The Freedom to the Brave campaign had charged the investigating authorities with ignoring several testimonies attesting to Farag’s innocence, as well as evidence that he could not have participated in the protests in question.

At least 16,000 people have been arrested since the end of June last year — though activists say the figure could be as large as 40,000 — when the military ousted elected President Mohamed Morsi, after a mass wave of protests calling on him to resign. There has since been a heavy crackdown on Islamists and secular activists.

The Interior Ministry has repeatedly denied that there are any suspects currently being held pending investigations in Egypt’s prisons.