By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: Hundreds of Suez residents held an open sit-in at El-Arbaeine Square on Tuesday, demanding that the court revoke its decision to release on bail seven defendants charged with the murder and attempted murder of peaceful protesters.
The protesters chanted, “We can hear the calls of a martyr’s mother asking where her son’s rights are.”
Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud challenged the court’s decision to release the defendants on Monday evening in response to the anger of the victims’ families.
“This is a good step by the Prosecutor General to fix the outrageous mistake the court has made by releasing these defendants,” Ahmed El-Kilany, a lawyer representing the martyrs’ families, told Daily News Egypt.
El-Kilany explained that defendants shouldn’t be released on bail during a trial for many reasons. Apart from the possibility of fleeing the country, they may also be able to pressure witnesses to change their testimonies or tamper with evidence, he said. Their own lives are also compromised by their release.
“In this case, the defendants’ lives are threatened by the martyrs’ families,” he said.
The appeals court is expected to review the Prosecutor General’s challenge on Wednesday in order to determine whether or not to revoke the court’s decision, according to El-Kilany.
On Monday evening, a few thousand protesters gathered in El-Arbaeine square calling for justice for the martyrs following the court’s order.
Ahmed Abdel Gawad, a senior member of Al-Ghad Party, who participated in the sit-in, told DNE that most of the protesters left the square by dawn to go to work.
He added that the protests will continue and that the residents will hold mass protests on Friday until the court’s decision is repealed.
Fourteen defendants are being tried by the Suez Criminal Court for murder and attempted murder of peaceful protesters during the January 25 Revolution, seven of whom in absentia.
On Monday afternoon, the court set LE 10,000 bail to release the defendants and the case was adjourned to September 14.
In response, the martyrs’ families closed off the Cairo-Suez desert road for several hours.
Abdel Gawad said that military officials convinced the families to open the road when the Prosecutor General challenged the decision.
Suez Security Chief Osama El-Tawil told state TV’s Channel One late Monday that the situation was calm and that families of the martyrs were allowed to freely express their sentiments.
El-Tawil denied the intervention of police forces in the protests, saying that Suez residents maintained public order and didn’t allow any outlaws to infiltrate them.
Suez witnessed the most intense clashes at the beginning of an 18-day uprising starting Jan. 25 that led to the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.
Official reports say that 29 were killed in Suez during clashes with security, while over 1,000 were injured.
