European lawyers launch petition to demand Adly’s release

Lawyers from several European countries launched a petition on Monday to demand that Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghafar release lawyer Malek Adly from prison.

While condemning Adly’s three-month detention as unfounded, lawyers also called on their governments and the European Union to take action to persuade Egypt to end its general practice of abuse, torture and abduction.

“We believe that Mr Adly’s conditions of detention, the obstruction of his legal representatives and the charges he is facing are indicative of a wider pattern of repression directed at Egyptian lawyers and campaigners who have been at the forefront of efforts by civil society groups to support Egyptian citizens facing harassment, prosecution and abuse by the state security agencies and the judiciary for the peaceful exercise of their constitutional and internationally-guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and association,” the petition asserted.

The petition listed other rights activists who have been detained for their political work, including labor rights activist and lawyer Haitham Mohamadein who has been held in pretrial detention on similar charges since last April and whose detention was renewed for another 15 days on Monday.

After a warrant was issued in April, Adly was arrested and has since been held in pre-trial detention. A Shubra al-Kheima court recently issued a 15-day detention renewal order to Adly, which is the eighth time his detention has been extended. The lawyer stands accused of plotting to overthrow the government and to alter the Constitution, in addition to having joined a seditious group and hindering the official duties of government institutions. Adly has also been charged with promoting publications to disrupt national unity, disseminating false news and inciting the April 25 anti-government protests.

Adly was one of the most vocal figures opposing the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia that was facilitated by a maritime border agreement the two countries signed in April.

Since his arrest, Adly’s family and lawyers have complained that security forces have denied him medication, kept him in solitary confinement and not allowed him the legally mandated time outside of his cell. Adly has reportedly been hospitalization four times during his detention.

The list of signatures on Monday's petition includes lawyers, law professors and members of legal associations and syndicates from several countries including France, England, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Italy.

Numerous local and International organizations have demanded Adly’s release in recent months including the Brussels-based Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, Florence’s city council and the United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.