On Sunday a court in Cairo ordered the release of Ahmed Abdallah, director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and legal consultant of the murdered Italian journalist Giulio Regeni, after a prosecution appeal last week blocked his release.
Abdallah was arrested in the early hours at his home in New Cairo in April as part of a widespread crackdown in response to protests against Egypt’s acknowledgement that the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir belong to Saudi Arabia.
On Friday Egyptian Prosecutor Nabil Sadeck admitted for the first time that Regeni was investigated by police in the weeks leading up to his disappearance on 25 January, the fifth anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. His body was later found on the Alexandria Cairo road, his body bearing the signs of brutal torture.
It has recently been revealed that head of the Independent Street Vendors Union reported Regeni to the police after he was “sceptical” of Regeni’s “illogical” questions he believed had “another motive”. PhD student Regeni was researching Egyptian street vendor unions.
Police say they dropped their investigation into Regeni and his work after three days and blamed a criminal gang, who were later shot, for his death. But the torture Regeni sustained bore all the hallmarks of professional torture.