CAIRO - Egypt's continued detention of a man for being a Shi'ite Muslim is illegal and discriminatory, a prominent rights group in the country said on Wednesday. Lawyers at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) told the German Press Agency (dpa) that courts have repeatedly ordered the release of Mohamed Farouk el-Sayyed since his arrest last year, but the Interior Ministry has refused to let him out of prison. 'These detention orders make a mockery of the law and the judiciary,' Adel Ramadan, EIPR's legal officer, said in an interview with dpa. El-Sayyed had been arrested with 10 other Shi'ites on charges of organising a group that allegedly aimed to 'incite rejection of Sunni Islam,' the country's main religion. The Interior Ministry has repeatedly renewed detention orders for el-Sayed and seven of the other Shi'ites since May 2009, despite requests from the state prosecutor for their freedom. The last release order from a court came in recent days, but instead of setting el-Sayyed free, police first moved him to the State Security Headquarters in Cairo for five days and then transferred him to a prison in the nearby town of Damanhour. The group was originally targeted because of online discussions of the Shi'ite sect, Ramadan said. There is no specific law banning Shi'ite Islam or any other religion in Egypt. However, rights groups say the incitement law is used to detain members of minority faiths. The EIPR has filed a complaint against the Egyptian government with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the situation of the Shi'ite men. Emergency laws that have been in place for nearly three decades grant Egypt's police extensive powers.
