CAIRO: The Ministry of Interior has renewed the detention of writer and activist Mosaad Abu Fagr despite his having obtained a court release order – the eighth since his arrest in December 2007.
Abu Fagr s blog Wedna Naeesh (We Want to Live) reports, in an April 12, 2009 posting, that five days after being moved from Cairo Abu Zaabal Prison to a police station in north Sinai – as part of routine release procedures – the writer still has not been freed.
On April 19, the blog reported that Abu Fagr had been taken to Alexandria s Borg El-Arab Prison “after the interior ministry refused to implement the release order issued by the Ismailia Appeals Court.
Abu Fagr s wife is quoted as saying on the blog that the interior ministry s determination to keep her husband in detention is “legally unjustifiable and a flagrant attack on freedom and human rights.
“When will the interior ministry respect judicial verdicts and, in particular, release orders for administrative detainees held without any charges . being leveled against them? she asks on the blog.
Abu Fagr, an activist who campaigns for better economic and social conditions for Sinai s Bedouin community, was arrested on Dec. 26, 2007.
The first court ruling ordering his release was issued in February 2008. The numerous release orders which succeeded this one have all been ignored by the Ministry of Interior which is detaining Abu Fagr under emergency law.
Abu Fagr started a hunger strike last year after being categorized as a criminal, rather than political detainee, and rights groups have urged his release on health grounds.
The detention of Yahya Abu Nasira, another Sinai activist arrested at the same time as Abu Fagr, has also been renewed.
According to Wedna Naeesh, Abu Nasira and Abu Fagr had been moved from Borg El-Arab Prison to Abu Zaabel “in order to make an example of him.
“Abu Fagr was in Borg El-Arab at the beginning of his detention and was recently moved to Abu Zaabal. With the new detention order he has returned once again to Borg El-Arab, the blog reports.
“They know via their pathetic reports and prison informers that Abu Fagr has not changed a single one of his principles or ideas – which will never change, even if they detain him for tens of years.
“While they may have Abu Fagr in detention, they are only detaining him physically. The free man stays free even if a thousand iron doors surround him. This is what they will never understand.
