A CASE OF ALAA ABDEL-FATTAH

After the revolution there have been several attacks on some of the churches of Egypt (Imbaba, Aswan, Atfih). Following these events the “Union of Youth Maspero” called for a demonstration in front of the Radio and Television Building to demand accountability for the perpetrators of these violations, but there had been clashes by military police against the demonstrators, killing 27 citizens, 12 of them crushed to death by military police vehicles, in addition to hundreds of injuries.

Number of demonstrators was arrested as well as calling some of the activists and clergymen for questioning about the events, and accusing them of some of the accusations as incitement, the theft of army weapons, and the destruction of public facilities and other charges. It is worth mentioning that one of the defendants was Mena Daniel, one of the martyrs of the massacre of Maspero.

Following the events of Maspero concerning the assault o the peaceful Coptic demonstrators in October 9, 2011, blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was surprised by a request from the military prosecutor asserts his presence in court for questioning on the pending case No. 855 of 2011, of eastern martial on October 25, 2011, “which was the case of the investigations in Maspero events”. Because of its presence outside the country during the summonses directed to him, his father, Mr. / Ahmed Seif al-Islam Hamad, at the same time his attorney to the military prosecutor and met with the chief prosecutor and asked him to set a later date until the return of Alaa from abroad.

October 30, 2011 was set to attendance of Alaa before the prosecutor’s offices, and actually Alaa and his father and other lawyers went to the Headquarters of the prosecution. Alaa already stood before the military prosecutor in that day, but he refused to be investigated before the military prosecutor because he is a civilian and civilians shall not be on trial before military courts and even if he was accused of any charge, he must be brought before his normal judge not to special court.

He requested to proof that in official report and also stated that the investigator should not be the opponent and judge at the same time due to the involvement of some members of the military police in the abuses resulting from these events. So, the military prosecutor accused him of stealing weapons owned by the armed forces, gathering and use of force and violence against the armed forces as well as the infringement of staff assigned to serve the public “members of the armed forces.” The court-martial in this session ordered his detention for 15 days pending investigation and he was deposited in the prison of Appeals, located in Bab el-Khalk ” Cairo.

The lawyers appealed for the imprison sentence issued to him in accordance with the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure and the appeal was already and set to view it the session of November 3, 2011. This meeting was attended by a large number of lawyers and demanded the release of Alaa, but the court decided to continue imprison sentence and after the end of the meeting and the decision,he was deposited in Tora prison in the ward of investigations in Cairo.

On November 13, 2011, the activist Alaa Abdel Fattah appeared before the Military Court due to the end of the period of incarceration set for him and this meeting was attended by lawyers who asked for his release due to lack of justification for detention, but the court’s decision was to renew the period of imprisonment for a similar period for 15 days and was deported back to Tora prison.

Human rights data about Activist: Alaa Abdul Fattah