Sad news hit the families of two young detainees who have spent over two years in jail without trial, after the court finally granted them a release on EGP 1,000 both on Tuesday. The prosecution authorities appealed a decision issued Tuesday by the Cairo Criminal Court, which ordered the release of Mahmoud Mohamed Hussein, also known as the anti-torture T-shirt detainee, and co-defendant Islam Talaat. The court will look into the appeal Thursday, according to lawyer Mokhtar Mounir. "Unfortunately, the prosecution challenged a court decision, which was nothing more but a required law reinforcement; since the detainees exceeded the maximum pre-trial detention of two years by nearly 58 days," Mounir told Daily News Egypt on Wednesday morning, citing article 143 of the Criminal Codes Procedures. According to Mounir, the prosecution is legally entitled to challenge the decision, but its motives are questionable, as if it "persists on unlawfully detaining the defendants," he said. Meanwhile, Mounir explained that the court decision was unrelated to a meeting that took place Tuesday between President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and as group of writers, who advocated freedoms and rights for young activists and journalists. "At the very least, if the decision was a result from a presidential order, the prosecution would not have appealed against it. Sadly, the news about Hussein's release order were promoted to be related to that meeting, which is completely untrue. Simpy, a fair judge gave a fair decision," Mounir concluded. Arrested on 25 January 2014 while wearing a T-shirt that read "Nation without torture," Hussein was detained for more than two years without being referred to trial. He faced charges of belonging to an "illegal organisation" and engaging in violence.
