CAIRO: The detention order issued against Reda Abdel Rahman, a Quranist blogger arrested in late October has been quashed by the Emergency State Security Court.
Adel Ramadan, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) told Daily News Egypt that the interior ministry detention order was overturned on Sunday because it contravenes regulations governing detention.
Abdel Rahman was arrested in the early hours of Oct. 27. EIPR suggested in a statement issued after his arrest that he is being detained because he is a Quranist.
Quranists are Muslims who believe the Quran to be the paramount source of jurisprudence.
Egyptian Quranists have been detained on previous occasions solely because of their religious beliefs.
In 2007, EIPR reported that five Quranists were held in administrative detention and questioned about their religious beliefs.
Reporters Without Borders reported in a statement issued last month that Abdel Rahman has been blogging for nearly two years and that “he has had countless problems with his employer [Abdel Rahman works as a social workers in a preparatory school affiliated to Al-Azhar University] in connection with his writing.
Abdel Rahman’s family attempted to visit him Tuesday in Tora Prison (where he is being held) but were denied the right to see him or leave food for him despite the fact that they had obtained official permission to do so from the attorney general.
“We will attempt to visit Reda on Saturday if he has not been released by then, Ramadan said.
“The interior ministry has 10 days to appeal the court’s decision. We are lobbying for it not to exercise this right of appeal and for Reda to be released.
