Political parties, figures, rights groups condemn detention of youth

A number of political parties, rights groups and high profile figures issued a joint statement Monday condemning the detention of hundreds of youth in political cases and denouncing the contentious Protest Law.

The statement directs questions to the government, asking why these young people languish in prisons for months even though they pose no threat to national security and social order. “These are the very same young people whose role the state praised in ousting a corrupt regime,” the statement read, “and who took the lead against the sectarian Muslim Brotherhood state on June 30.”

The group raises concerns about the targeting of “the revolutionary youth” and students, saying it may be “a deliberate and conscious attack on the January 25 revolution.”

The statement juxtaposes a desire to free the “corrupt symbols” that were ousted in 2011 with the insistence on keeping Egypt’s youth in jail for violating the Protest Law, “designed specifically for the revolutionary youth.”

The signatories on the statement include the Dostour Party, the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, and prominent figures such as former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi and Khaled Ali, former MP Amr Hamzawy, rights lawyers Gamal Eid and Ragia Omran, as well as former TV anchor Reem Maged, among several others.

The statement deems the Protest Law unconstitutional, detailing some of the cases in which a number of activists have been imprisoned for violating it.

Last November, the controversial bill was passed imposing severe restrictions on the right of assembly, including an article requiring a permit from the Ministry of Interior for any assembly of over ten people in a public space.

Some of the members of the 50-people committee that was tasked with drafting the constitution called for reviewing this law, the statement said, adding that the National Council for Human Rights also called for its amendment.

Since the law was issued, the statement said, there have been unprecedented legal violations, including arbitrary arrest and detentions, unfair trials, as well as holding investigations without the presence of lawyers, and sometimes arresting the lawyers themselves.

The signatories called for amending the Protest Law according to the NCHR’s proposals, releasing all political prisoners, and holding the Interior Ministry as well as the General Prosecution responsible for the safety of those on hunger strike.