Update: Rights groups condemn renewed detention for Ettehadiya protesters

Several rights groups issued a joint statement early Monday evening condemning the four-day extended detention of 23 activists arrested on Saturday during a peaceful march to Ettehadiya Presidential Palace.

The signatories to the statement — including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence — also reiterated calls to repeal the Protest Law. 

Prosecutors have become accustomed to automatically pressing charges against peaceful protesters without conducting serious investigations, the statement claimed. The charges are typically “based on sham inquiries prepared by the Ministry of Interior, especially the National Security Agency,” it continued.

The statement also noted that according to the law, the penalty for protesting without a permit is a fine, “which makes it illegal to hold suspects in pretrial detention for such crimes.”

The Ministry of Interior therefore fabricates other charges, such as assault and vandalism, to escalate the charges to a misdemeanor or a felony in order to justify pretrial detention, the groups asserted.

The statement declared that the Ministry of Interior, the general prosecution and investigating authorities must put an end to persecuting political activists with pre-prepared charges, and also stop using pretrial detention as a form of punishment.

Earlier on Monday, the prosecution extended the detention period for the 23 protesters by an additional four days pending investigations, according to lawyer Osama al-Mahdy.

Detainee Omar Moussa was released on LE2,000 bail, however, due to his poor health condition, Mahdy said.

The lawyer asserts Moussa had been injured prior to his arrest, but the Freedom to the Brave group alleges that he was tortured at the New Cairo police station along with other male detainees, before he was transferred to the Heliopolis Hospital with fellow protester Islam Tawfiq.

Lawyer Marwa Farouk corroborated that story. She told Mada Masr that the detainees were beaten at the police station, and their legal defense team had requested that evidence of their injuries be presented to the forensics authorities.

The protesters were arrested Saturday as they marched against the Protest Law, which was passed last November. Eyewitnesses recounted that the demonstrators were assaulted by plain clothes assailants, purportedly "thugs," who threw stones and glass at protesters while police trucks fired volleys of tear gas.

It was the first time protesters attempted to march to the presidential palace since newly elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to office.

Seven women are among the detainees, including activist Sanaa Seif, sister of incarcerated activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, and human rights researcher Yara Sallam.

According to a lawyer attending the interrogations, Seif is pleading guilty to protesting without a permit, a move that was meant to express her rejection of the contentious law.

The detainees are being held in four different police stations in New Cairo as well as the Badr Police station, according to Mahdy.