Detention of ‘T-shirt Boy’ extended for another 45 days

A Cairo court extended the detention of student Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Hussein – known as the “T-shirt Boy” – for another 45 days on Thursday.

Mahmoud was originally arrested in 2014, during the third anniversary of the January 25 uprising, and has spent over 712 days in pretrial detention.

He was arrested at a checkpoint in Cairo's Marg for wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo and slogan for the Nation Without Torture campaign, along with a scarf bearing a symbol of the 2011 uprising.

In October, Amnesty International called for the release the 20-year-old student, who has been in pretrial detention for nearly two years.

By the time he faces his next court hearing, Mahmoud will have passed two years in pretrial detention, the maximum allowed by Egyptian law.

On Thursday, Amnesty reiterated its call for his release.

“Everyone should be able to live without fear for the views they express or for participating peacefully in a protest. But Mahmoud Hussein has spent 20 months in jail without charge or trial for doing just that, with his only offence being to have demanded an end to torture and celebrating the ‘25 January Revolution’,” Amnesty said in October.

Amnesty’s petition gathered over 145,000 signatures.

Mahmoud’s hearings have been adjourned five times recently, on three occasions due to police reluctance to transfer him from Tora Prison to the court. This month, the court fined prison authorities for their failure to transfer him.

The detainee’s brother, Tarek Mohamed, explained to Mada Masr that he had exhausted all possible means to get his brother released. He said that a complaint was filed in front of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, but he is still awaiting a response.

“There are no justifications for extending his pretrial detention for that long. He does not pose any threat to the investigation process and he has a known address. Why don’t authorities just release him pending investigations then?” Tarek wondered. “The only explanation is that the state is scared of a child.”

Tarek explained that his detained brother was subject to police interrogation only once, upon his arrest in 2014.

As part of the campaign to free Mahmoud, a group of rights activists and politicians have expressed their solidarity and demanded his release in a video that was widely shared on social media.

Among those involved are: Dostour Party leaders Gamila Ismail, Khaled Dawoud, and Mohamed al-Gamal; Egyptian Social Democratic Party member and former parliamentarian Ziad al-Eleimy; singer Samia Gaheen; activist Mona Seif; poet Fouad Haddad; member of the National Council for Human Rights and lawyer Ragia Omran; and parliamentarian Haitham al-Hariry.

Tarek said that another video is in the making, in which international figures will express their solidarity with Mahmoud’s cause and demand his release.

Mahmoud told his family earlier that he was assaulted in his prison cell by two police officers last July.

Tarek said that prison authorities refuse to pass books to his detained brother. He is moved to a new prison cell from time to time to prevent him developing friendships with anyone, said Tarek.

“Many people love you and know about your story. A lot of people are now waiting for your release and they are telling everybody. I will keep dreaming about your freedom until the dream comes true,” Tarek said in an open letter to his brother on Thursday.