What to expect from National Dialogue’s discussion on reforming remand detention

Politicians, experts in criminal law and justice and rights lawyers are to discuss reforms today to the system of remand detention, a pretrial measure often used to keep people in custody for extended periods of time in relation to political activities like demonstrations or publishing commentary critical of the government. 

The National Dialogue’s human rights committee is set to discuss laws governing pretrial detention in its session on Tuesday.

Recommendations, including a list of detainees, are to be submitted directly to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following the sessions. 

The forum, a state-led initiative shaping consultations toward political reform, was launched in 2022 and came with a revival of the Presidential Amnesty Committee and the National Council for Human Rights, bodies advocating for prisoner releases directly to the President to secure a number of mass release decisions for prisoners, and from prosecuting authorities for detainees in remand. 

Various opposition figures have repeatedly demanded the quick release of political prisoners as a guarantee of the National Dialogue’s seriousness over past sessions, with some even choosing to withdraw from the sessions in protest.

More recently, renewed calls for releases have surfaced from rights organizations as well as families of the political detainees, including those held in remand detention for long periods. 

Tuesday is the first time the forum will turn directly to the issue of remand detention.Mada Masr spoke to some of those set to participate in today’s session to learn more about what’s on the agenda, and whether positive changes could be around the corner. 

Member of the Board of Trustees and defense lawyer Negad al-Borai told Mada Masr that the meeting will be attended by 40 concerned individuals, divided in two sessions, including lawmakers and politicians.

“The advantage in Tuesday’s session is that it is more limited and therefore discussions will be more in depth because there were too many people in previous sessions,” he said.

But when asked about whether there will be guarantees that recommendations generated in the session will lead to reforms, Borai was sanguine. “What are the guarantees that trees will grow? Will the weather be good? Will prices decrease? The most important thing is that we do our job well, that opinions are clearly expressed and that recommendation comes out as people intend them to. There are no guarantees for the recommendations to be implemented.”

According to a National Dialogue statement published Sunday, discussions will cover five subtopics relating to pretrial detention, including duration of imprisonment, alternatives to detention, its application in cases of multiple and concurrent crimes, associated travel bans and compensation for wrongful remand detention.

Borai said that what the recommendations should aim to achieve is a clear prohibition on any person, entity, or official from circumventing the law. 

He pointed to the fact that pretrial detention has recently trended as a topic of discussion on social media platforms, in the House of Representatives as well as on talk shows, saying that the fact the government is attempting to address it now should be considered a triumph to rights activists.

For politician Khaled Daoud, a member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and participant in the dialogue, the issue is with how authorities use remand detention laws in political cases. 

Following the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the Cairo Court of Appeals created six criminal tribunals with the goal of facilitating faster adjudication of cases and they were tasked with looking into “cases of terrorism and organized violence.” When Sisi was elected and the Muslim Brotherhood classified as a terrorist group, authorities began to use terrorism charges more frequently, Daoud told Mada Masr.

But the use of remand detention has expanded since 2013 as well. Daoud argued that the increased use of pretrial detention is at odds with the aim of ensuring a faster prosecution process. 

“Pretrial detention is often used in cases related to publishing false news or using social media platforms to express their opinion” said Daoud.

“If people were to be referred to trial and prosecuted only on those charges, people could stop staying in prison for years in remand detention and instead, if they were convicted, be served a sentence of between three to six months,” Daoud explained. He added that it is the frequent use of terrorism charges in cases where prosecuting authorities decide to hold suspects in remand which allows for individuals to be held for years at a time prior to trial. 

At a point, Daoud continued, remand detention on terrorism charges became a tool used against all types of the political opposition for illegitimate reasons, despite the fact that the concerned individuals do not belong to “the terrorist current” in most cases.