CAIRO: The Supreme Council of Armed Forces said Friday that it will reinvestigate the legal procedures of the trials of all the youth of the revolution, especially those arrested in March and April.
"The head of the SCAF ordered the reinvestigation of all the trials of the youth of the revolution, especially the ones arrested during the events of March and April to initiate the rule of law," the ruling council said on its official page on Facebook.
Meanwhile, military prosecution released 28 people arrested by military police on April 12 during a crackdown on a Tahrir Square protest.
"Most of these were found innocent while few were given suspended one year sentences," said lawyer and rights activist Ragia Omran.
Military police dispersed a sit-in in Tahrir Square following bloody clashes on April 9 when military police arrested a group of army officers who protested in Tahrir, leaving one dead.
Human Rights Watch said in its latest report that more than 5,000 civilians were tried in front of military courts, urging SCAF to stop those trials and to transfer those arrested to civilian courts.
SCAF had previously ordered the reinvestigation of a number of cases sentenced through military courts, whose families appealed for the military prosecution for reconsideration. But families said no action has been taken since then.
One of those was Mohamed Adel who was arrested by military police on Jan. 28 in front of the Egyptian Museum, and was sentenced to three years in military prison for "attempted theft".
"Nothing new since then," Nariman Ahmed, Adel’s mother, told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview. "I went to the Ministry of Defence and showed them the SCAF’s statement and said they will look at it but no real legal steps were taken," she added.
Adel’s mother expressed deep concern about her son’s military imprisonment, and questioned why her son was tried in three days while his release process was taking such a long time.
"They even asked me why I was in such a rush,” she said.
