Egypt renews 'wrongful' detention of an activist held for five years without trial

An Egyptian court "wrongfully" renewed the detention of a political activist reportedly held without trial for over five years, a rights group said on Monday.      

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) said in a statement that, on Sunday, a Cairo criminal court had ordered the detention of pharmacist and Islamic preacher Khaled Abu Shady to be renewed for 45 days.

Abu Shady had been arrested in June 2019 over his involvement in a case dubbed by the media as "the Hope Cell" (also known as "the hope coalition"), an opposition alliance formed by political activists of different affiliations seeking to run in parliamentary elections.

According to the rights group, Abu Shady was denied access to the outside world, among other violations. He had reportedly been subjected to enforced disappearance before being faced with terrorism-related charges by a state security prosecutor two weeks later.

Over the past decade, local and international human rights organisations documented hundreds of cases when authorities used pre-trial detention as an oppressive tool against regime critics, activists and journalists. Tens of thousands are estimated to be currently behind bars in Egypt; many of them never stood trial.

The detention renewal of Abu Shady and others in related cases came as the country's National Dialogue and the lower house of the parliament had recently been working on drafting articles in the criminal procedural law in a bid to limit pre-trial detentions. 

The dialogue, initiated by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2022 and held its first session a year later, has been formed of representatives of political groups and parties,

Earlier last week, a batch of 151 pre-trial detainees were released in what observers viewed as a sign of good faith.

"The committee does a really nice public relations job, promoting what should happen rather of the reality, which gives Sisi something to brag with amid the ongoing [alleged] human rights violations, corruption and economic mismanagement," a high-profile political analyst told The New Arab.   

Since then, batches of a few dozen detainees or prisoners occasionally receive presidential pardons and are released. 

"The release of detainees is nothing but an attempt to save face and appease the public, while at the same time, give false hope to others or their families and loved ones," said the analyst on condition of anonymity for safety concerns.

"Legally, pre-trial detention cannot exceed two years in Egypt for felonies punishable by up to life sentence or execution. In cases involving political activists facing terror charges or charges as grave as high treason, they are considered felonies," lawyer Mona Radwan explained to TNA.

Rights groups have frequently accused authorities in Egypt of "recycling" dissidents into new cases before the 24 months are over.

By doing so, detainees remain incarcerated for years without a fair trial.  They mostly face the same set of terrorism-related charges, reportedly without concrete evidence or solid police investigations provided for their lawyers to argue.