ALEXANDRIA: The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and The Association for Human Rights Legal Aid strongly condemned today the ruling of Manshyia court in Alexandria against the activist Hassan Mustafa Abdel-Fattah, a supporter of the Egyptian police victim in Alexandria, Khalid Said. The court sentenced Hassan to 6 months in prison after a prompt investigation and a and quick trial that were concluded in two days, displaying a typical model of unfair trials in Egypt. Egyptian police arrested Hassan Abdel-Fattah, a 6th April activist along with four citizens on Thursday, 10/6/2010, at night, while staging a protest in front of Sidi Gaber police station in Alexandria, for the murder of the Egyptian young man, Khaled Said. Sidi Gaber prosecution released Hassan Abdul Fattah and ordered a forensic examination after he was violently assaulted at the police station, but security did not release him and referred him to another prosecution office, Manshiya's, on charges of demonstrating in another alleged case. Manshiya prosecution released him for the second time. Rather than respecting the law and prosecution decision and referring Hassan to forensic examination, police detained him for a day at State Security Investigation. When Hassan resented being in detention, he was surprised to find himself charged with assaulting a police officer. He was interrogated on Monday June 14 for the third time in four days, where the prosecutor decided to keep him in custody for four days pending investigation. On 16/6/2010, when his lawyers headed to attend the investigation and request a forensic examination to prove the injuries done to him, they were surprised to learn he was being tried. The lawyers were not able to thoroughly review the charges against him or present an efficient defense. This resulted in the court sentence of six months imprisonment, a fine of LE2000 pounds and a bail of LE1000 pounds on charges of assaulting a police officer. The Arabic Network and the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid said, “the Egyptian government is the only government in the world that would release the accused of killing a citizen under torture, while trying those who are protesting against the killing of that citizen, Khalid Said, in a hasty and unfair trial. Impudently, some hypocrite Egyptian journalists would brag about justice in Egypt. It is indeed a miserable justice.” Both organizations demanded the prosecution service and the Egyptian judiciary to stand against the impunity of the murderers of Khaled Said. Trials by all means should not be a tool for the Egyptian interior ministry to get rid of opponents and silence critical voices which is the case in the unfair trial of the young activist Hassan Abdel-Fattah. ANHRI
