Criminal Justice | ECESR Gets Acquittal for Osman Blocks Protesters against Water Shortage

The ECESR lawyers won today an acquittal decision at the Court of Misdemeanors (October second) in favor of the defendants of Osman Blocks neighborhood, 6 October area, in Case 7167/2014 (Misdemeanors October second).

The defendants Bassam Muhammad Qutb, Abdul Rahman Abdullah Mohammed, Ahmed Hamdi Tawfiq, Mahmoud Hamdi Abdo, and Mohammed Hassan Mahmoud had been arrested and charged with illegal demonstration, assembly, road disruption and assaulting security forces. It all started when a group of citizens disrupted the Oases Road on June 11, 2014 in protest against water shortage in their neighborhood (Osman Blocks, October 6).

The ECESR lawyer Mahmoud Abdel-Gawad acted on behalf of the fourth defendant, who was acquitted after the oral hearing, along with the rest of his co-defendants in absentia.

This ruling, according to ECESR, proves the right of citizens to make their voices heard by peaceful protests against the lack of importance given to their problems on the part of the state bodies and organs.

This ruling also reminds us of the need to reconsider the Protest Act, which prevents citizens, particularly the poor, from peaceful protest in the face of the deteriorating living standards, basic services and facilities such as water, electricity, sanitation and the right to housing, education and health.