Protesters form human chains to demand release of political prisoners

Political groups and human rights activists organized human chains in two Egyptian cities on Wednesday to demand the release of thousands of political prisoners, and to advocate for the annulment of the repressive protest law that was issued late last year.

Several hundreds are reported to have taken part in protests in Cairo and the Nile Delta city of Damietta. 

In Cairo, the stationary human chain — which spanned several kilometers along the Nile from the neighborhood of Agouza to the island district of Zamalek — turned into a protest march, which was tear-gassed by riot police when it reached Tahrir Square. Three protesters were reportedly detained by security forces.

The human chains involved protesters holding hands, but more commonly standing side by side while holding signs and banners along streets and bridges, occasionally chanting slogans in solidarity with political detainees.

Signs bearing the names and images of jailed political activists were held up for passing vehicles and pedestrians to see.

The Muslim Brotherhood and their allied National Alliance to Support Legitimacy organized the Damietta protest on Wednesday morning, while activists from the April 6 Youth Movement and the Revolution Path Front were behind today’s human chain in Greater Cairo in the afternoon.

While these events are not directly linked and involve different political players, their goals are similar.

Members of the April 6 Youth Movement have held a host of protests demanding the release of their leaders Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, along with activist Ahmed Doma, who were sentenced to three years in prison in December 2013 for violation of the protest law.

Thousands of supporters and allies of the Muslim Brotherhood have been detained since former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in July last year.

Opponents of the law passed by interim President Adly Mansour in November 2013 commonly refer to it as the “anti-protest law” due to its many restrictions on rights of assembly and expression. This law also grants police sweeping powers to ban and forcefully crackdown on protesters.

On Tuesday night, members of the centrist-Islamist Strong Egypt Party also staged human chains in the country’s second city of Alexandria, where they raised similar demands and slogans.

A larger protest is scheduled to take place outside the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace in Heliopolis on April 26.