The fate of a group of army officers that joined the revolutionary protests last year is still uncertain, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky Several of the country's political forces have been protesting in Cairo's Tahrir Square over the last week to press for the release of a group of army officers who were arrested last year because of their participation in a pro-revolutionary demonstration. The protests, mainly led by the 6 April Youth Movement, called upon President Mohamed Mursi to issue a pardon for the jailed officers, dubbed by the media as the "8 April Officers", and to allow them to return to military service. "These officers sacrificed their jobs and their future to support the revolutionary principles that brought President Mursi to power. They should be honoured in a public ceremony instead of being jailed," said Ahmed Maher, leader of the 6 April Youth Movement. Other protests were also staged in several governorates across Egypt, among them Tanta, Minya, Alexandria and Kafr Al-Sheikh, in support of the detained officers. Two days earlier, the families of the detained officers had organised a sit-in in front of the presidential palace in Heliopolis demanding their release. The families of the officers said that they were expecting a pardon from the president in the coming days. However, Yasser Ali, spokesperson for the presidency, said in a statement that the issue of the 8 April officers was still under consideration and that no decision had been made. His comments came in reply to statements made last week by the wife of Ahmed Shoman, one of the jailed officers, who claimed that her husband and the other officers would be released soon. Speaking to the ONTV satellite channel, Shoman's wife stated that she had received a phone call from a top official informing her that her husband would be released along with the other officers. The 8 April officers are a group of 26 junior military officers who were arrested and tried before a military court after taking part in a demonstration in Tahrir Square on 8 April 2011 called the "Friday of Trial and Purgation". Some of the officers joined the protests wearing their military uniforms. The protesting officers had called for the arrest of former regime figures and the trial of those charged with ordering the killing of peaceful protesters during the 25 January Revolution. They chanted slogans against the then ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), accusing it of conspiring against the revolution. Some of the officers who joined the protests were arrested after the military police raided Tahrir Square on 8 April. Others handed themselves over to the military authorities. The first group of officers received jail terms ranging from six to 10 years from a military court last year. Shortly afterwards, former defence minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi decided to ease their sentences to three years. Another group of officers received sentences ranging from two to four years. According to the court, the officers were charged with "committing actions that violate discipline and military regulations" and failing to turn up for duty because they were taking part in protests. Last April, the Ministry of Defence ordered the conditional release of 22 of the 26 officers. All of the released officers have since been enrolled on a rehabilitation programme at one of the Maadi military hospitals in Cairo. Lawyer for the officers Mohamed El-Rayes said that the release of the 22 officers in April was conditional and was not considered an official pardon, which could only be given by the president under Egyptian law. At the same time, a presidential pardon would not allow the officers to return to duty, as this would be an internal military matter and would have to be looked into by the committee of military officers' affairs. Al-Rayes noted that the participation of the officers in the protests had taken place in very special circumstances, when all the Egyptian people and the army had revolted against the former Mubarak regime. "They did nothing outside of this context. The SCAF itself announced its support for the protests and protected the protesters with tanks against the thugs of the former regime," he said. According to one of the officers who attended the rehabilitation programme, and preferred not to use his name, the officers had spent three days a week attending classes in hospital while spending the rest of the week with their families. Last week, a video posted on social networks showed one of the officers, who is still detained, demanding his release in the manner of colleagues conditionally released in April. Officer Mohamed Wadie appears in the 29-minute video sitting on a chair, wearing his army uniform and speaking via his cell phone camera in a bare room. It is not clear how Wadie managed to smuggle the cell phone into the prison or upload the video onto the Internet. "I didn't make the video to cause problems. I made it because I have questions to which I can find no answers," Wadie said. "My colleagues and I were arrested on the same day and we faced the same charges. So, why were they released and I am still here?" Wadie has already been tried in four separate cases, and he has been sentenced to a total of five years in prison. One of the charges against him was that he and the other officers had "conspired to cause divisions within the Armed Forces." "I went to Tahrir Square with my colleagues, hoping to make our country better and our army stronger," Wadie said. He had done the same thing as the military as a whole, he said, which from the beginning had announced its support for the revolution.
