The case of 23 activists held in prison since 21 June for holding an illegal protest in front of Al-Ittihadiya Presidential Palace in Heliopolis has attracted special attention because it includes seven young women, including a human rights activist, Yara Salam, and Sanaa Seif, the sister of prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah who has himself been in and out of prison over the past year. Judges have refused to release any of the defendants pending trial, as has been the case in similar incidents. In October, a court handed down the harsh sentence of three years in prison for all 23 activists and a further period under police supervision. Each activist is also being fined LE10,000. Several political parties, human rights organisations, women's groups and prominent media columnists have called upon President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to use his powers to release the young defendants and to amend the protest law issued by the government in November 2013. The law imposes penalties ranging from between two and five years in prison for holding illegal demonstrations and provides wide powers to the Interior Ministry to ban peaceful protests. On 28 December, after the 23 defendants had already spent over six months in prison, the Appeals Court reduced the sentences to two years in prison instead of three and another two years under police supervision. This involves registering daily at a police station. The judges decided at the last moment on Sunday morning to move the sentencing session to the highly secured Police Academy building on the outskirts of Cairo, where former presidents Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi have been being tried, instead of the Abbasiya Court located in a far more crowded neighbourhood. The session, which lasted a few minutes, started at 1:30 pm, and the defendants were quickly escorted out of the court back to prison chanting “demonstrating is our right. We refuse your tyrannical law”. “Revolutionaries are not thugs,” they cried. “Prison will never force us to give up.” Several newspapers quoted president Al-Sisi as saying that he was unhappy that young women had been kept in prison, but that he could not interfere in the judicial process. However, Emad Hussein, editor-in-chief of the independent daily Al-Shorouk, said that Al-Sisi might be willing to use his powers as president and pardon the defendants, especially the seven women, after a final sentence had been issued. The cases can still be appealed in front of the Court of Cassation. However, Laila Sweif, mother of Sanaa Seif, said that this was a lengthy procedure that could take up to a year, after which the defendants would have almost finished their prison terms. The government has repeatedly argued that the protest law is necessary to deal with the violent clashes between the security forces and the political Islam groups that have been protesting the removal of former president and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. However, the secular political parties and youth groups that emerged after the 25 January Revolution that led to Mubarak's ousting said that their members had been the ones mostly harmed by the law despite the peaceful nature of their protests. Demonstrations held by Brotherhood supporters often turn violent, and those detained in them face a long list of more serious charges including joining an illegal group and seeking to overthrow the government, not only violating the protest law. Political parties and groups supporting the amendment of the law point out that many of the young activists currently in prison had led the protests against the Brotherhood and Morsi, ending up with his removal and succession by president Al-Sisi. “Instead of the government treating them as partners who provided key support for the 30 June protests and the Brotherhood's removal from power, many young democracy activists now find themselves in prison,” said Amr Al-Shobaki, a researcher and former parliamentarian who took part in drafting a new constitution after Morsi's removal. That constitution, which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, saying that peaceful protests can be held simply by notifying the Interior Ministry, was approved in January 2014 with a 98 per cent majority in a referendum. “Insisting on keeping the protest law unchanged, and continuing to send young men and women to prison for long periods, can only weaken the 30 June partnership and take us back to the period under Mubarak when young people would not take part in politics because they did not trust they system,” Al-Shobaki added. Khaled Ali, a lawyer and former leftist presidential candidate, has won a case in the Administrative Court that allows him to challenge the protest law in front of the Constitutional Court. However, by the time the country's highest court rules in Ali's case, dozens of activists will have served their time in prison. Minister of Justice Mahfouz Saber seems to be in no rush to amend the law. In a statement on Sunday, he told reporters that the government would wait for the Constitutional Court to rule in the case against Ali, adding that the next elected parliament could also look into it. The law was proving to be effective, he said, judging by the smaller number of protests and demonstrations in recent months. Reactions were generally angry to the sentence against the 23 activists. Members of the Dostour Party, the Karama Party, the Popular Trend Party led by former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, and the Popular Socialist Alliance, as well as youth groups such as the 6 April and the Revolutionary Socialists, said the sentences were further evidence that the government was not planning to hold free-and-fair parliamentary elections. No firm date had been set for these, but Al-Sisi has been quoted as saying they will be in the first quarter of 2015. Mohamed Kamal, a 6 April Movement member, said that “the repeated sentences against revolutionary activists only confirm that we are facing a security state that wants to discourage the youth from taking part in politics. These are the same policies as those of the Mubarak security state.” Amr Shalabi, a member of the Dostour Party said that three of his colleagues were among the 23 sentenced to prison on Sunday, adding that the sentences were pushing many to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections. “How can we trust the fairness of elections held under judicial supervision if the same judges issue harsh prison sentences against us,” Shalabi asked. A separate case involving 24 activists charged with violating the protest law, including Alaa Abdel-Fattah, is expected to wrap up soon. On 27 December, lawyers presented their closing remarks, and the case was adjourned to 10 January. The defendants were arrested on 26 November 2013 while holding a protest in front of the Shura Council, where members of the committee tasked with amending the constitution were meeting. They demanded a ban on the trial of civilians by military courts, and the security forces violently dispersed the demonstration and arrested dozens of activists. Many were released on the spot, but 24 were referred for trial, including Abdel-Fattah who was charged with attacking a police officer and seeking to steal his radio. All the defendants were released on bail, except for Abdel-Fattah who has been in and out of prison since. When the defendants missed an early court session in June, the judge sentenced all of them to 15 years in prison in absentia. After the trial was reconvened, the judge decided to step down and the case was referred to a different judicial panel. The first decision the new judge took when the case started again on 27 October was to imprison all the defendants, even though they had been standing trial for nearly a year while outside prison. The decision increased fears among lawyers that the judge was likely to issue prison sentences against the defendants.
