Spokesperson for Sisi rival in 2018 presidential race released after 17-month detention

Political science professor Hazem Hosny was released from prison by the State Security Prosecution on Monday after 17 months in remand detention. According to lawyer Khaled Ali, he has been ordered to remain under house arrest as a condition of his release.

The former Cairo University professor rose to prominence as the spokesperson for former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan’s 2018 presidential bid. He was arrested on charges of calling for anti-government demonstrations in September 2019 during a mass security crackdown related to a limited wave of protests. A Facebook page that was attributed to Anan campaigners at the time called for people to demonstrate against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. 

Hosny was released from custody early Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the State Security Prosecution ordered him to be released, according to a Facebook post by Ali. The requirement that Hosny remain under house arrest is uncommon.

He was one of the thousands who were arrested after self-exiled former-contractor and actor Mohamed Ali took to social media to call for protests against Sisi, alleging public funds were being mismanaged to build several luxury presidential palaces. 

An order for Hosny’s release was first issued in November 2020 but instead of being freed he was added to a new case and ordered back into remand detention on fresh charges, a common tactic known as tadweer (rotation) that allows authorities to hold prisoners in remand detention despite court release orders and a two-year legal limit on imprisonment without trial.

Anan, a lieutenant general and former senior member of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, which acted as an interim government for over a year after the 2011 revolution, was arrested from his car in January 2018, a few days after announcing his presidential bid against Sisi. He was charged by a military prosecution with forging official documents and evading military service after running for the Egyptian presidential elections in 2018. He was released in December 2019 after nearly two years in detention.