UN delegation arrives in Egypt to show solidarity with Maher, Doma and Adel

A diplomatic delegation from the European Union arrived yesterday at the police headquarters of the Institute of Trustees in Tora, located to the south of Cairo, in solidarity with Egyptian political activist Ahmed Maher, one of the founders of the 6 April Movement, along with his colleagues Ahmed Doma and Mohamed Adel.

They arrived for a hearing to appeal the three-year prison sentence they received after they were found guilty of violating the new Egyptian protest law and being involved in violence. Earlier in the day, the defence team, including lawyer Khaled Ali, also arrived for the hearing.

The court of misdemeanours in Abdeen, held at the Institute of Trustees, previously sentenced Maher, Doma and Adel to three years in jail with a fine of 50,000 pounds each on charges of “assaulting troops, acting violently in front of Abdeen Court, destructing public and private facilities, and wounding troops that were assigned to secure the court”.

The New York Times obtained a translation of the letter that was written by Maher and smuggled out of Tora Prison over the weekend, in which he describes how “guards had beaten them during their transfer from prison to court for an appeal hearing.”