Egypt releases 4 Salafi preachers as politically motivated trials continue

Egypt has released four Salafi preachers who were members of the Salafist Front, part of the Anti-Coup Alliance political coalition formed in 2013 which opposed the military take-over of power.

The coalition was made up of roughly 40 Islamist parties and groups and sought to reverse the ouster of the late President Mohamed Morsi from power.

Mahmoud Shaaban, Ashraf Abdel Moneim, Hisham Mashali and Saad Fayyad were arrested most recently in 2019 and charged with “inciting violence and joining a terrorist group.”

They have been detained and released several times since 2013.

READ: Egypt court postpones human rights researcher’s trial

Mahmoud Shaaban’s health deteriorated in prison to the point that he suffered partial paralysis as part of the Egyptian regime’s systematic denial of medical care particularly for political prisoners as part of a punitive measure against government opposition.

Roughly 65,000 Egyptians have been arrested and detained on account of their political and ideological views since the 2013 coup in Egypt and kept in squalid conditions.

Whilst there have been isolated cases of the release of political prisoners, including the release of YouTube star Shadi Srour, journalist Shaimaa Sami and activist Ziyad Aboel-Fadel at the end of August and six prominent activists and journalists in July, arrests and maltreatment continue.

This week, human rights researcher Patrick Zaki’s trial for “spreading false news” was once again postponed, in a move designed to keep the former rights researcher in prison for longer.

Also this week, Egyptian security forces arrested an Egyptian media professor Ayman Mansour Nada, after he wrote an article criticising pro-regime media personalities.