Lawyers: 16 facing investigation following flare-up at October 2 pro-Sisi rally in Marsa Matrouh

Sixteen people are being held in detention pending investigation into charges that they incited violence and destroyed property during a flare-up that broke out last week in the crowded city center of Marsa Matrouh on the same night that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced he would run for reelection, lawyers told Mada Masr.

Public gatherings and concerts were held in Marsa Matrouh’s Alexandria Street as well as in cities around the country on the afternoon of October 2 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel. Popular singer Ahmed Sheba and several Egyptian and Libyan poets were billed to perform.

At the same time, the pro-government Nation’s Future and Homeland Defenders parties held rallies to support the reelection of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the upcoming December ballot, with Sisi announcing in a televised address the same evening that he would run for a third term in office.

Eyewitnesses speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity said that the tone of the gatherings became tense after a police officer working to secure and manage the event acted violently toward some of the young people at the gathering. In the wake of the incident, some people tore down signs bearing slogans of support for Sisi and burnt them, said the eyewitnesses. It was “a nervous reaction to the oppression to which some of those youth were subjected during the celebrations, which led them to lose control over themselves after the end of the ceremony,” said one of the eyewitnesses. Footage from Matrouh circulating online on the night of October 2 showed people chanting for Sisi’s departure from office, an end to military rule, and tearing up and burning images of the incumbent president. 

The Interior Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday morning that a fight had broken out “due to competition to take pictures with Libyan poets, and the security agencies were able to arrest the perpetrators.”

Police arrested 67 people from the scene, said sources close to the families of the detainees speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, but most of those arrested Monday evening were released after security investigations revealed they were not connected to the night’s events.

The 67 young people remained in detention over the course of last week, waiting to be presented before the Public Prosecution pending its decision on whether to investigate them on charges of “protesting, sabotaging public and private property and wasting public and private funds,” said Heiba Abdel Raouf, Freedoms Committee secretary for the Matrouh branch of the Lawyers Syndicate.

Lawyers working in defense of the 67 detainees, said Raouf, were preparing the argument that the young people did not participate in any premeditated actions and had no intention of protesting that evening.

While 51 were later released, the Matrouh Public Prosecution decided on Sunday to detain 10 of the young men for a period of 15 days on charges of rioting, destroying public and private property, and inciting violence, a member of their defense team told Mada Masr.

Six more, meanwhile, were referred to the State Security Prosecution in Cairo, which issued on Sunday orders for them to be detained for 15 days pending similar charges, lawyer Nasser Amin told Mada Masr.

The remaining 16 people were prosecuted and ordered to be detained for 15 days, accused of inciting violence and destroying properties, lawyers told Mada Masr.