Egypt: Student who was arrested in error jailed for eight months without charge

An Egyptian university student who was randomly arrested nearly eight months ago from her university was given a five year prison sentence and fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($13,984) fine without charges.

On December 24, 2013, Asmaa Hamdi Tarabeek, a dental student from the Sharqiya province, was on her way to take a practical exam at Al-Azhar University when the Egyptian police arrested her along with other female students, believing they were members of an anti-regime protest. Despite Asmaa pleading to the police officer who arrested her that she was not part of the protest she was beaten along with five other students and dragged into a nearby police station.

Asmaa’s father said the family hired a lawyer the minute they heard of her arrest. The lawyer discovered she was being held without charges and therefore should be released immediately.

However, instead of releasing her, the Egyptian authorities charged Asmaa with a misdemeanour and renewed her detention four times.

Asmaa’s father said: “Over the past six months, the court has postponed Asmaa’s appeals nearly eight times and deported her to Al-Qanater prison. We are only allowed to visit her once every two weeks for 45 minutes.”

“We plead with the prison wardens to treat her politely and respectfully, but instead they beat her and burnt her clothes, then the prison administration deported her to Damanhur prison.”

He pointed out that “two days before the appeal court’s session, she, along with other detainees, were transferred to Banha prison, then to Cairo and, while they waited outside the court room, the Chancellor adjourned the case without any justification and they were returned to Damanhur prison.”

He said: “I appealed to the Egyptian president and the attorney general to release my daughter but no one responded to my appeals.”