CAIRO: Egyptian activists were disappointed on Thursday afternoon after the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) did not release leading blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah from custody. Fattah will now serve out his remaining 15 days in custody, which can be renewed indefinitely. “Alaa will continue the 15 days.. He will spend Eid, and could possibly miss the birth of his first child, in SCAF's prisons,” wrote Abdallah Nabil on Twitter shortly after the announcement was made. Fattah, one of Egypt's earliest bloggers served a sentence in jail before, for his participation in the 2006 judiciary protests, where the rights community came out in support of the judges who were calling for the independence of the judicial system. On Sunday, Fattah reportedly refused to be interrogated by the military court, rejecting its legal legitimacy. He was sentenced to 15 days in state custody pending further investigation, according to the Al-Nadeem Center for Victims of Violence in Cairo. Amnesty International reported that a ‘public complaint' and video allegedly has come forward showing Fattah threw rocks during the protests, but nothing has been made public. “The summoning of two activists by military prosecutors is a warning that Egypt's armed forces are cracking down on criticism, including of their handling of the Maspero violence,” said Amnesty International in the statement, in reference to activist Bahaa Saber, who also was summoned on Sunday, but released. The summoning announcement on October 26 came on the same day that United States President Barak Obama called to urge the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Hussein Tantawi, to urge him to bring an end to the practice of trying civilians in military courts. BM
