BFF-53 Egypt orders release of 15 dissidents including ex-Sisi campaign manager

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EGYPT-PRISONERS

Egypt orders release of 15 dissidents including ex-Sisi campaign manager

CAIRO, March 19, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Egyptian prosecutors on Thursday ordered the release of 15 political dissidents including a prominent academic and a former campaign manager for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, judicial sources said.

Among those set to be freed, Cairo University political science professor Hassan Nafaa, 73, was detained last September for criticising Sisi’s performance after rare, small-scale anti-government protests.

Rights groups estimated about 4,000 people were arrested, with hundreds later freed, in a nationwide crackdown following the demonstrations, which followed calls by an exiled Egyptian businessman in Spain.

Also included in Thursday’s list was Hazem Abdel-Azim, a one-time Sisi supporter and manager of his 2014 electoral campaign, who later attacked the president’s policies.

Others set to be released include officials in secular political opposition parties and civil society activists.

The Supreme State Security Prosecution, which ordered their release, is a branch of Egypt’s public prosecution that deals with state security-related crimes.

In a report last year, Amnesty International denounced the growing role of the SSSP as a judicial “tool of repression”.

The prosecution did not clarify whether the detainee release was in response to calls to release political prisoners and those in pre-trial detention over fears of a coronavirus outbreak in jails.

On Wednesday, police arrested four prominent women activists who demonstrated in central Cairo to urge authorities to implement measures to ensure prisoners are not infected.

Three of them were released on bail Thursday but mathematics professor Laila Soueif remained in custody.

Her daughter Sanaa Seif said on Facebook that her mother is expecting charges to be filed against her.

Egypt’s interior ministry said Thursday that a ban on family visits in prisons, in effect since March 9, would be extended until the end of the month out of concern for “public health and the safety of inmates”.

BSS/AFP/MRU/0021hrs