Trial of detainees arrested outside Alexandria courthouse adjourned to January 9
Egypt’s State Security Misdemeanor Emergency Court adjourned Tuesday’s trial session for three men detained in Alexandria following the verdicts issued against activists Mahienour al-Massry and Moatasem Medhat on Saturday.
The next session in the case for the three defendants has been scheduled for January 9, in which the testimony of Adham Radwan, the arresting officer from the Mansheya Police Station, will be heard.
The three defendants — Mohamed al-Hadidi, Mostafa Tawfik and Haitham Abdel Qader — were among dozens who gathered outside an Alexandria courthouse on Saturday to see Massry and Medhat as they were being led outside the courthouse after verdicts against them were issued. The three men were arrested when police forces attempted to disperse the crowd.
They were transferred to the Mansheya Police Station on Saturday night and interrogated by National Security Agency personnel. They were then referred to prosecution, which leveled various charges against them, including protesting without a permit, illegal assembly, thuggery, assault of a public employee and the obstruction of traffic.
Families and friends of the defendants were able to attend Tuesday’s court session, in which the three men were questioned about their presence in front of the Mansheya court complex on Saturday. The defendants stated that they are friends of Massry and her family, and were there to attend her trial, according to brother of one of the detainees, Taher al-Hadidi.
The defense lawyers argued that the police report that was filed in the case was invalid because the arrest location was not referenced, a legal stipulation for arrests that take place without a warrant.
On Saturday, an Alexandria misdemeanor court sentenced Massry and Medhat to two years in prison in relation to a protest that took place on June 14 in Alexandria against the ratification of the maritime border agreement in which Egypt ceded sovereignty of two Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia.
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