Protesters arrested Friday to be held for 4 days pending investigations

Twenty-five people arrested during Friday demonstrations will be held for four days pending investigations, their lawyer said Sunday.

A hearing to determine whether or not their custody will be renewed is scheduled for Monday, lawyer Mokhtar Mounir added on Facebook.

The detainees have been charged with conducting a protest without authorization, disrupting public transportation and the flow of traffic and breaching public order and illegal assembly, all crimes under the 2013 protest law carrying sentences of two to five years in prison, as well as a fine of up to LE100,000.

A release order was issued for the detainees Saturday, but was reversed within hours before it was implemented.

The protesters were arrested during a demonstration that drew 1,500 people to the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo and ended when Central Security Forces fired teargas to disperse the crowds.

The stand in front of the Journalists Syndicate was one of several demonstrations nationwide on Friday in protest over the transfer of sovereign control of the Red Sea islands Tiran and Sanafir, located at the entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba, to Saudi Arabia. There were also large protests on Talaat Harb Street and Champolion Street in downtown Cairo and in Mohandiseen in nearby Giza. Other cities, including Alexandria and Mansoura also witnessed demonstrations.

Although protesters rallied around the transfer of the islands to Saudi Arabia, many aired other grievances during the first large-scale protest in months. A banner was raised bearing the image of Coptic martyr Mina Daniel, who was killed by security forces in 2011, as were banners of Giulio Regeni, the Italian PhD researcher who was recently killed in Egypt. Others chanted in support of political prisoners and jailed actvists.

The demonstrations were held despite warnings from the Ministry of Interior. On Thursday, the Ministry issued a statement urging citizens “not to heed such calls, and warn[ing] against any attempts to deviate from legitimacy.” The ministry also claimed it had received reports that the Muslim Brotherhood was calling for protests to incite chaos and to cause conflict between security forces and citizens.

More than 150 people were arrested nationwide. As of Saturday night, all of them had been released, except 25 of those held at Qasr al-Nil police station and a small group in Alexandria, lawyer Mounir told Mada Masr at the time.