Criminal Justice Legal Work Litigation rulings-en

ECESR Publishes Reasoning of Ruling Detaining Shura Council Protesters, Argument of Defense

Monday, 16 March,2015

The Cairo Criminal Court issued the reasoning of its ruling in the case known as “Shura Council Protest”. The court had sentenced two suspects to 5 years in detention and the rest of the suspects (21 suspects) to 3 years in detention, and all suspects were sentenced to 3 years of police probation and a fine of LE100,000 each.

The suspects have been arrested from a large protest which was called for by several political movements and forces on 25 November 2014 against the issuance of law no. 107/2013, which regulates the right to public meetings, processions and peaceful demonstration, known as “protest law”. It was promulgated by a presidential decree in an atmosphere of a transitional government and clear absence of a parliament or any social dialogue on 24 November, one day before the protest. Protesters called for repealing the law which circumscribes public spaces by putting this very fundamental and unalienable right in the hands of the Ministry of Interiors, to decide whether to accept or not any call or request to demonstrate.

Therefore, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) condemns the issued ruling along with other similar rulings where groups of political activists, citizens and youth who participated in the Revolution were sentenced to prison. Such rulings are merely issued as a punishment to the suspects’ practice of a constitutional right to peaceful protest, which is a tool of expressing opposition and criticism of policies, laws or decrees issued by an executive authority at the same time several officials in Mubarak’s reign are acquitted from crimes such as corruption, murder, embezzlement of public funds and ruining the political life in Egypt.