Warraq residents shut down development authority offices to protest prison ruling against neighbor

Residents of Warraq Island shut down the New Warraq City Development Authority’s offices on Tuesday, blocking its entrance and bringing work to a halt in protest over a court ruling that sentenced a resident to prison on what they say are fabricated charges.

The detainee’s father has been involved in reestablishing a healthcare clinic on the island, a source in Warraq told Mada Masr.

National Security Agency officers attempted to calm the situation but residents continued their protest throughout the day.

The body, established on the island in 2018, handles applications to sell homes and land on Warraq, determines rates of compensation and manages other procedures tied to the state’s ongoing efforts to demolish residents’ homes to make way for corporate real estate development.

The shutdown marks an escalation following several days of protests organized near the island’s police station. Demonstrations began after a November 13 ruling sentenced Abdel Razek Walid to two years in prison on what his father says are fabricated theft charges. An appeal hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Walid Abdel Razek, the detainee’s father, told Mada Masr that his son was summoned, arrested, tried and convicted within just eight days; an expedited process that he believes indicates the accusations are fabricated.

Abdel Razek said his son and another member of the group working to establish the clinic had received threatening phone calls from unidentified individuals in the days leading up to his son’s arrest.

The Shorouk police station also summoned his son earlier this month, keeping him in custody for an entire day during which an officer cursed at him and told him: “So you’re from Warraq Island? The ones who are so full of themselves?”

He said his son had been forced into signing a police report accusing him of stealing cables, based solely on claims made by security staff at the construction site. He added that the case lacks any material evidence and that authorities have not seized any property for examination.

Residents of Warraq Island are working to rebuild their healthcare clinic years after it was demolished — along with the island’s post office and youth center — within the state’s push to convert the island into a real estate investment project aimed at buying out residents’ homes and land and displacing them from the area.