Egypt’s anti-protest law brings condemnation from Amnesty
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Version 0 of 1. More than 20 people appeared in an Egyptian court yesterday charged with defying the country’s anti-protest law, which rights group Amnesty International has declared “repressive”. The defendants, detained since 21 June, had their trial suspended until 11 October with bail denied. Prominent women’s human rights defender Yara Sallam and activist Sanaa Seif are among those charged. The demonstration against the anti-protest law, which was enacted in November, took place in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. The protesters had been marching to the presidential palace when they were allegedly attacked repeatedly by groups of men in civilian clothes. Security forces arrested around two dozen people as they dispersed the crowd. Ms Sallam was said to have been walking in the area and not taking part in the protest when she was arrested. One person was released, while a youth is set to face a separate trial before a juvenile court. The accused face charges of damaging property, displaying force with the aim of terrorising passers-by and endangering their lives, and taking part in a gathering of more than 10 people with the aim of threatening “public peace” and committing crime. The charges are made under legislation signed by the then interim president, Adly Mansour, on 24 November 2013. It banned public gatherings of more than 10 people without prior government approval, imposing fines and prison terms for violators. The law grants security agencies the right to bar any protests or public gatherings they deem a threat to public safety or order, and gives police the option – after warnings – to escalate the use of force, including the use of teargas and water cannon. “This appears to be yet another show trial based on scant and dubious evidence that is intended to be a clear warning to anyone who defies Egypt’s protest law,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, as part of a statement by the rights group released before the trial. Amnesty has called for the Egytpian government to release those facing trial. “Anyone against whom there is sufficient evidence of violent criminal activity may only be tried on recognisably criminal charges in proceedings that fully conform with international standards on fair trial,” it said. Egypt’s Interior Ministry has said the law “doesn’t diminish citizens’ rights to peaceful expression of opinion”. The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said earlier this year: “The right to protest is guaranteed for all but we will not let the country be destroyed.” Nancy Okail, the executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, was sentenced in absentia by an Egyptian court to five years in prison over the alleged actions of US NGOs in Egypt in 2011, when she was working for the group Freedom House. Writing in The Washington Post about the numerous women facing charges, she recalled how she “spent endless hours and days in interrogation and was locked in a courtroom cage”. Now living in exile in the US, Ms Okail wrote: “I am free because my case drew international attention. Brave women like Yara Sallam [and the other women involved] may not be so lucky. |