Lawyer: Prosecution interrogates Wael Abbas, some of his possessions seized illegally

Recent interrogation sessions with Wael Abbas, who was arrested from his home during a Wednesday dawn raid, suggest that security forces seized a number of the detained blogger’s personal belongings illegally, according to lawyer Abdel Rady.

Abbas, who is known for blogging about protests and documenting police brutality, faces charges of aiding a terrorist group in the achievement of its aims, using a website to propagate a terrorist group's ideology and publishing false news in relation to Case 441/2018. Rady, an Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) lawyer, told Mada Masr that he denied all charges.

During a Monday interrogation session, which lasted for approximately two hours, the Supreme State Security Prosecution presented Abbas with some of the items seized from his home during the Wednesday raid.

While these items were all listed in the case files, the lawyer told Mada Masr that a number of the electronic devices that ANHRI reported as being seized are not, and were not presented during the interrogation session. This means that they were seized illegally.

The lawyer told Mada Masr that Abbas raised concerns about the unlisted objects during the Monday interrogation session, stating that they contain important data related to his work.

While Abbas admitted to owning the items in the case files, he continued to deny the accusations leveled against him, according to Rady, who added that the prosecution did not mention any specific incidents relating to the charges.

In a previous interrogation session, held on Saturday, prosecutors questioned the blogger for almost six hours, according to the privately owned Youm7 newspaper, and asked him about his political activities both prior to and following the January 25 revolution.

Abbas is currently being held in Tora Prison, and no date has been set for further interrogations.

International rights organizations have condemned the arrest and detention of the well known blogger. During the Wednesday dawn raid Abbas was blindfolded, taken to an unknown location and prevented from contacting his lawyer. He was brought before prosecutors and handed a 15-day detention order one day later.

His is the latest in a series of arrests and detentions that have targeted lawyers, activists and bloggers in recent weeks.

The case in which he is involved also includes a diverse array of defendants arrested in past months, among them journalists Mostafa al-Asar and Hassan al-Banna, lawyer and head of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms Ezzat Ghoneim, Fatemah Mohamed, her husband Abdallah Moddar and her brother Omar Mousa, and PhD student Walid al-Shobaky, who was missing for four days, before he was brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on Sunday.

Defendants face charges of spreading false news and joining a terrorist group.