NCHR protesters report maltreatment in sit-in against Protest Law

A group of activists staging a sit-in inside the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), against the controversial Protest Law, said they have not been treated well inside the council building and faced harassment by security.

Activists reported that journalists were not allowed into the sit-in, while other demonstrators wishing to join the protest were prevented from doing so by security at the council's building.

“NCHR employees are not offering any proper mats for them to sleep on, leaving them only to sleep either on the dirty floor or on the chairs, just like last night,” activist Mohamed Hossam, known as Kalousha, said on his Twitter account Monday.

Privately owned newspaper Al-Watan reported that a group of prosecutors visited the striking activists inside the council to officially register their complaints and demands.

The activists are seven of those convicted in the Shura Council case. In a statement issued by those participating in the sit-in, the group vowed to continue their hunger strike until the Protest Law and the verdicts issued under it are annulled and all political prisoners are released.

The demonstrating activists are currently meeting with members of the NCHR and shall release a statement shortly regarding the results of the meeting.

Activist Alaa Abd El Fattah is among those detainees, but is currently being held pending investigations along with two others in the same case.

The group said they launched their hunger strike, “in the pursuit of peaceful resistance to achieve the dreams and ambitions of the Egyptian people," and to stand against "the regime’s arbitrary arrests…and physical and emotional torture and the violation of the most basic of human rights.”

“We will not stand silent in the face of ongoing crimes committed against an entire generation that dreams of change,” the statement read.

The group said it will hold members of the NCHR responsible for their safety and security.

They join a growing number of prisoners on hunger strike demanding justice. Their demands range from better jail conditions to release.

NCHR member Hassan Amin joined a group of political parties and rights group on Monday to demand annulling the Protest Law, saying that the NCHR repeatedly demanded the law be repealed, according to state-owned website Al-Ahram Gate.

“The law was prepared by institutions that do not believe in the right to protest and peaceful assembly as it compiled six laws in one by stipulating on the use of weapons and violence by police forces against protesters,” Amin explained.

Amin added that the law is in the process of being amended, after the NCHR was requested to present its suggested amendments to the legislation. The NCHR will recommend cancelling all prison sentences applied under the law.

He added that the recommendations will be sent to the Ministry of Transitional Justice. If the law is amended, Amin said, all those detained according to it will be set free.

The April 6 Youth Movement, whose founder Ahmed Maher was sentenced to three years in prison under the same law, issued a statement on Monday declaring its support for the hunger striking detainees.