Justice Observatory in Egypt from January 8 to January 14, 2024

Summary:

1. State Security investigations continue into 39 citizens on charges of terrorism and spreading false news.
2. Conviction sentences up to aggravated imprisonment, for citizens in cases before terrorism chambers.
3. Renewing the detention of hundreds of citizens by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
4. The continuation of holding criminal trials before exceptional courts, in violation of the rules of fair trial.
5. The death of a prisoner due to the deterioration of his health..
6. A Republican decision to pardon a number of convicts, on the celebrations of Police Day and the January 25 Revolution.

Details

1- Prosecution Investigations

• Supreme State Security Prosecution:

1. Supreme State Security Prosecution interrogated (during the newsletter’s coverage period) 39 citizens, and put them in pretrial detention for joining a terrorist group and financing and supplying a terrorist group.

2- Detention Renewal:

Monday, 8January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-III, in Badr Prison renewed the detention of dozens of citizens held in pre-trial detention pending cases. Cases No. are 1335 of 2019, 484 of 2021, 909 of 2021, 912 of 2021, 1285 of 2021, 1984 of 2021, 2064 of 2021, 93 of 2022, 96 of 2022, 200 of 2022, 1 020 of 2022, 1635 of 2022, 1752 of 2022, 1977 of 2022, 330 of 2023, 392 of 2023, 641 of 2023, 716 of 2023, 1582 of 2023, Supreme State Security.

 

Tuesday, 9 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-III, in Badr Prison renewed the detention of citizens held in pre-trial detention pending cases. Cases No. are 759 of 2014, 722 of 2015, 148 of 2017, 700 of 2017, 444 of 2018, 1332 of 2018, 650 of 2019, 1413 of 2019, 549 of 2020, 867 of 2020, 1 053 of 2020, 1107 of 2020, 755 of 2021, 911 of 2021, 979 of 2021, 2000 of 2021, 540 of 2022, 635 of 2022, 1095 of 2022, 2094 of 2022, 2515 of 2022, 60 of 2023, 258 of 2023, 422 of 2023, of 2023, 718 Of 2023, 931 of 2023, 1977 of 2023, 2113 of 2023, Supreme State Security.

 

Wednesday, 10 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-III, in Badr Prison renewed the detention of citizens held in pre-trial detention pending cases. Cases No. are 689 of 2017, 977 of 2017, 623 of 2018, 640 of 2018, 1555 of 2018, 1358 of 2019, 647 of 2020, 649 of 2020, 680 of 2020, 383 of 2021, 8 83 of 2021, 910 of 2021, 966 of 2021, 1869 of 2021, 2055 of 2021, 2215 of 2021, 2556 of 2021, 2993 of 2021, 4 of 2022, 400 of 2022, 573 of 2022, 907 of 2022, 1473 of 2022, 1539 of 2022, 1650 of 2022, 1691 of 2022, 1893 of 2022, 1960 of 2022, 2412 of 2022, 145 of 2023, 191 of 2023, 294 of 2023, 1160 of 2023, 1468 of 2023, 1634 of 20 23, 1976 of 2023, Supreme State Security.

 

Sunday, 14 January

1. Zagazig Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber renewed the detention of 10 citizens. They are Abd al-Rahman Muhammad al-Said Muhammad Deabis, Ibrahim Muhammad Ahmad Abu Zaid, Mahmoud Muhammad Elian, Shehab al-Din Ramadan, Saeed Muhammad Abd al-Hamid Ammar, Ahmad Muhammad Shehata, Abd al-Rahman Mahmoud, Ahmad Abd al-Baqi, Hamada al-Essawi, and Muhammad Abd al-Karim Attia, for 45 days pending investigations, on charges of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news.

3- Trials:

Wednesday, 10 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber –II, held in Badr Prison postponed the retrial of 1 defendant in the case known in the media as Mataria Violence Incidents case to the session on 12 February 2024.
2. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber –II, held in Badr Prison reserved the case known in the media as the assassination of Major General Nabil Farrag to the sentencing session on 11 February 2024.

 

Thursday, 11 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-II, held in Badr Prison postponed the trail of 1 defendant, in the case known in the media as Imbaba Violence Incidents to the sentencing session on 13 February 2024.

Saturday, 13 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-II, held in Badr Prison postponed the trail of 6 defendants, in the case known in the media as Hadaeq Cell to the sentencing session on 4 February 2024.

 

Sunday, 14 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-II, held in Badr Prison postponed the trail of 37 defendants, in the case known in the media as The 5th Settlement Terrorist Cell case to the sentencing session on 5 February 2024, while placing them on the waiting list.

 

4- Judicial Rulings:

Wednesday, 10 January 

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-III, in Badr Prison, ruled to punish 2 defendants with 5 years aggravated imprisonment in the case known in the media as the Abu Numros violence case.
2. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-III, in Badr Prison ruled to punish 1 defendant with 10 years aggravated imprisonment in the case known in the media as the Muneeb Violence Incidents case.

 

Thursday, 11 January

1. Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chamber-III, in Badr Prison ruled to punish 14 defendants with 15 years aggravated imprisonment in the case known in the media as The Rabia Al Adawia sit-in dispersal case.

5- Legislations and decisions:

Wednesday, 10 January

1. The Official Gazette published in its issue No. 1 bis Decision No. 1 of 2024 of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt to pardon the remainder of the sentence of some convicts on the celebration of Police Day and the January 25 Revolution.

6- Statements:

Tuesday, 9 January

1. The Public Prosecution issued a statement, through its official Facebook page, regarding family prosecution services in the Alexandria Appeals Prosecution Department, and establishment of an office for in the “Cotton Palace (Singhour University)” building, in the Unknown Soldier Square in Manshia Department, which provides services, including extraction Judgments, photos of cases and testimonies.

7- Prison news:

Saturday, 13 January

1. The death of Taha Ahmed Haiba in his prison cell in Badr Prison, after his health condition deteriorated. Haiba was in his cell since 2019.

Legal Comment

Supreme State Security Prosecution continues investigating dozens.

As Supreme State Security Prosecution investigated – during the newsletter’s coverage period – 39 citizens, and put them in pretrial detention for joining a terrorist group and financing and supplying a terrorist group, based National Security reports. Those citizens include arrests and appearances from varying periods of disappearance.

In investigating the citizens, the prosecution relied on the articles of the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 94 of 2015, amended by Law No. 15 of 2020, which carries suspicion of unconstitutionality, especially Article 40, which gives the right to the judicial police officer to detain citizens for 14 days before presenting them to the prosecution for investigation.

 

Those trials lack all standards and guarantees of a fair trial, the most important of which is the principle of publicity of trials and allowing the defendants the communication with their legal defense.

 

Cairo Criminal Court, Terrorism Chambers, in Badr Prison, continued to renew the pretrial detention of dozens of citizens pending investigation by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, and on vague charges. Those charges have no single piece of evidence in the papers, except for the investigations of the National Security Sector, which sees all citizens as belonging to a terrorist group. Among them was journalist Medhat Ramadan, who has entered his fourth year in pretrial detention in Case No. 680 of 2020 since his arrest in May 2020.

 

In an incident that confirms the disadvantages of prolonged pretrial detention, the citizen Taha Ahmed Haiba died inside his prison cell in Badr Prison because of the deterioration of his health. This confirms that prolonged pretrial detention is like a cemetery or a means for the authorities to get rid of citizens and has transformed from being a precautionary measure for the benefit of the investigation into a tool of revenge for the benefit of the authorities.