Released by courts, novelist continues to be held under new charges
Egypt, Politics, 2/19/2008

The El Arish Partial Court issued a decision on February 16, 2008 to free the novelist and activist Musaad Suleiman Hassan, a.k.a. Musaad Abu Fagr. This is the third such court ruling within a week.

This latest ruling follows the February 14 decision of the Public Prosecutor in El Arish, North Sinai, to detain him in custody on new fabricated charges, including instigating riots, possession of a weapon without permission and driving a car without a license. These charges derive, according to the investigation record, from events in November 2007 - one month before the arrest of Abu Fagr on 26 December.

On 12 February 2008, an Appellate Court in Ismailia rejected an appeal by the Public Prosecution of Al Arish, and thus supported the decision of El Arish Partial Court to release Abu Fagr.

Abu Fagr's lawyers were surprised that the police did not release their client despite the court ruling, only to find out later that new charges had been laid against their client, "with the hidden motive of taking revenge on him" a group of human rights organizations said. The police transferred Abu Fagr from Ismailia to the Security Directorate of North Sinai, then to Rafah police station, and back to El Arish police station to investigate him on the new charges.

HRinfo, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the People's Committee for Citizens' Rights in Sinai spoke of the continued imprisonment of the novelist and activist Musaad Abu Fagr.

These organizations expressed fear that following the recurrence of judicial decisions to release the novelist, the security bodies would resort to the emergency law to continue detaining him through an administrative order. If this were to happen, it would clearly indicate that the security bodies resort to using the emergency law against political activists and those who express their opinion freely, and not only against the forces of terrorism, as claimed by the Egyptian government, they said.

The organizations said "Are detention, arbitrary arrests and intimidation the solution for the problems and crises of the people of Sinai? Or is the solution to provide real development that the Sinai people lack, bearing in mind that Sinai represents about one-sixth of the total area of Egypt?"

Previous Stories:
  Conviction of Al-Jazeera reporter, prison term struck   (2/12/2008)
  Torture and coerced confessions in Egyptian terrorism investigation   (12/11/2007)
  Jailed blogger tortured after uncovering case of corruption inside prison   (11/14/2007)

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