CAIRO: The South Giza Court renewed Monday the detention of 154 Copts for 15 more days pending police investigations into Al-Omraneya clashes between protesters and security forces that left two people dead. In the same case, the prosecution ordered the release of two women, and released two detained minors to their parents' custody. Clashes erupted late last month between security forces and Coptic Christians who were protesting in front of the Mar Girguis Church after Al-Omraneya district's administration decided not to allow the Copts to turn a community center — which is still under construction next to the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael Church — into a chapel. The clashes left two protesters dead, one of whom died before arriving at a hospital. On Nov. 25, the Prosecutor General ordered the 15-day detention of 156 protesters. Ramsis El-Naggar, the Orthodox Church's lawyer, told Daily News Egypt that he plans on filing a complaint to Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud in order to release the detainees. El-Naggar stated that the general prosecution is violating the Constitution by renewing their detention without legal grounds. The 156 defendants are charged with assaulting central security officers, the attempted murder of an Omraneya police officer, damaging an official central security forces vehicle, the theft of a central security forces vehicle battery, illegal assembly, the use of illegal weapons, failing to provide personal identification documents, throwing stones at police cars and pedestrians, deliberate destruction of buildings for a terrorist objective, blocking traffic, possession and use of explosives, and disturbing public security and peace. Lawyers from various human rights organizations said they were prevented from attending the investigations alongside the defendants. Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Daily News Egypt that she went to court with several other lawyers and security forces prevented them from entering the building. “The defendants were treated in a harsh and unlawful manner,” said Nasrallah. “They were divided into groups of 15 and were investigated with one group at a time, even though the law states that they should be investigated [on an individual basis].” Dozens of Coptic Christians protested on Saturday in front of the Supreme Court demanding the release of the defendants. The Egyptian Union for Human Rights Organization filed a complaint to the prosecutor general which also called for the detainees' release.
