Demonstrators presented to State Security Prosecution after arrests from women-led Palestine, Sudan solidarity protest

About 19 people arrested outside the headquarters of the UN Women’s regional office in Cairo were presented to the Supreme State Security Prosecution office in New Cairo on Wednesday, lawyer Fatma Serag told Mada Masr.

Several other people were released on Wednesday as well, following the mass arrest that took place at the site of the Tuesday protest in Maadi, which was meant to express solidarity with women in Gaza and Sudan.

The protest was dispersed by police forces, who dragged participants into vehicles and confiscated at least one of their mobile phones. It is the latest in a series of arrests against pro-Palestine protesters in Cairo.

On Tuesday night, at least three individuals were released from the Maadi Police Station. Lawyer Hoda Abdel Wahab told Mada Masr that several others were also released from the Tora Police Station earlier on Wednesday, although the exact number remains unclear.

Both lawyers confirmed that the total number of people arrested yesterday remains unknown. Their whereabouts were not revealed, with some thought to be in the National Security Agency headquarters in Maadi, while others were held overnight in the Tebbin Police Station, Serag said.

Defense lawyers gathered on Wednesday outside the prosecution office, where a heavy deployment of Central Security Authorities personnel was present, said lawyer Nabih al-Genady. Genady and Serag said that, until the time of writing, they were not allowed to enter and attend the questioning of those being presented to authorities.

After activists gathered in Maadi at the UN Women office to call for an end to the aggression on Gaza and the conflict in Sudan, police assaulted and arrested several of the participants, as well as passersby in the area, making it difficult to track everyone who was detained.

Those confirmed to have been arrested at the protest include lawyer and activist Mahienour al-Massry, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Gender and Human Rights Officer Lobna Darwish and journalists Rasha Azab, Iman Ouf and Hadeer al-Mahdawy, along with lawyer Ragia Omran, her personal driver, and activists Mai al-Mahdi, Asmaa Naeem and Farida al-Hefny, among others.

Journalist Youssef Shaaban, who was present in the vicinity of the UN headquarters without participating in the protest, and journalist Mohamed Farag, who passed by the area by chance while on his way to pick up his child from a nursery, were also arrested.

A number of Journalists Syndicate members, led by syndicate head Khaled al-Balshy, visited the Maadi Police Station on Tuesday night to confirm the presence of the arrests of five journalists, but the unit denied knowledge of their whereabouts, syndicate council member Mahmoud Kamel told Mada Masr.

Kamel added that the syndicate has intensified communication with various government agencies to demand the release of all those arrested, but no updates have been given since.