CAIRO: The Supreme Emergency State Security Court has again ordered the release of a man being held for his religious beliefs. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said on Sunday that the court rejected an appeal by the interior ministry against a decision to end the detention of Mohamed Farouq El-Sayyed. El-Sayyed was one of a group of 11 detained in April and May 2009 because of their Shia religious beliefs and interrogated on charges of forming a group “created in order to spread Shia beliefs which harm Islam and [Sunni sects].” The public prosecution office ordered that all 11 detainees be released in October 2009. The interior ministry responded by re-detaining eight of the group. El-Sayyed has previously secured six release orders. EIPR says that the interior ministry “remains intent on punishing citizens for their religious beliefs.” “The interior ministry must stop its policy of renewed detention and circumventing judicial release orders handed down to citizens detained unlawfully in a clear violation of human rights,” EIPR legal officer Adel Ramadan said.
