CAIRO: The Ministry of Interior arrested and detained Egyptian Shia Mohamed Farouk El-Sayed on Sunday for the sixth time in a little more than a year, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said. This came five days after El-Sayed received his fifth release order from the Higher Court of Emergency State Security on Wednesday. El-Sayed spent these five days at the State Security Police headquarters in Sixth of October to be transported back to Damanhour Prison on Sunday. El-Sayed was first arrested with 11 other Egyptians who follow the Shia sect of Islam in April and May 2009 in what was called the “Hassan Shehata Group” case. State Security accused them in June of “organizing a group to promote the Shia doctrine and incite the rejection of the Islamic religion and its Sunni followers.” Seven of these detainees have been in custody since 2009 despite several court orders for their release, according to Adel Ramadan, EIPR's legal officer. “The Ministry of Interior has no regard for court orders, and considers itself above the law,” said Ramadan. “Instantly re-arresting a detainee who has a release order is clear evidence of how the state continues to use exceptional powers in emergency cases,” he added. Recent amendments to the emergency law restrict its use to terrorism and narcotics related charges, but rights groups and activists have been skeptical about these restrictions ever since the state of emergency was renewed this year. The arrest warrant presented by state security police to detain El-Sayed is the same warrant presented in all arbitrary detention cases, but with different detainee names and arrest dates, according to a previous statement by the EIPR.
