While the release last week of one hundred prisoners – including myself – is a positive step, the real solution to the problem of the hundreds of imprisoned people is repealing the Protest Law no. 107 of the year 2013, and the Assembly Law no. 10 of the year 1914 which is still being used in prosecution of protesters; and the immediate release of all individuals who are facing/faced charges in relation to the participation in public assemblies and peaceful protest.
The hundred released in the presidential pardon are not the only ones detained or serving prison sentences for exercising their right to speech or assembly.
Many of those who are detained or are serving prison sentences had been targeted for perfectly legitimate acts protected under Egypt’s 2014 Constitution: for merely expressing their right to freedom of opinion, performing their work duties which are related to the dissemination of information to the public, or for participating in public assemblies and peaceful protest. In the many of these cases, fabricated or trumped up charges have been added to the original charges–typically charges that carry heavy prison sentences.
Thus, journalists who were arrested and tried simply for doing their work, or activists arrested in a peaceful protest; find themselves being prosecuted for acts of thuggery or assaulting officials or destruction of public property.
Hundreds of people are serving prison sentences of many years because of the increasingly punitive trend of prosecuting politically active individuals. Others have been in pre-trial detention for more than a year without even facing charges. Those and many such injustices have to be immediately rectified.
Freedom of expression and association, and the right to protest and participate in public assemblies and protest, are not only rights that the state has a constitutional obligation to protect, but they are also necessary ingredients of a dynamic, democratic society.
I take the opportunity to thank all individuals and organizations who worked – or still working – for the repeal of the protest law and the release of those detained for practicing their constitutional rights.
Thank you