By Marwa Al-A’asar
CAIRO: The Suez Criminal Court upheld Wednesday the release on bail of seven police officers charged with killing and injuring peaceful protester, rejecting an earlier request by the prosecutor general to revoke the decision.
The court order stirred the outrage of the hundreds of protesters, including martyrs’ families, who attempted to break into the Suez police directorate on El-Galaa Street, throwing stones at the building.
Police forces took refuge inside the building as military police forces cordoned off the area.
Protesters were provoked by a policeman who reportedly appeared through a window in the building making obscene gestures with his hand.
“We totally condemn the release order in the first place…which further deviates the case from its course,” spokesman of the Suez Youth Coalition, Medhat Eissa, told Daily News Egypt.
“The people’s rage today brings back the memories of the first days of the revolution,” he added.
On Monday afternoon, the court set a LE 10,000 bail to release seven of 14 defendants, and adjourned the case to Sept. 14. The remaining seven are being tried in absentia.
A few hours later, Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud challenged the court’s decision to release them in response to the anger of the victims’ families who sealed off the Cairo-Suez desert road for several hours.
Hundreds of Suez residents started an open sit-in that night in El-Arbaein square which witnessed the murder of the first protester during the January uprising.
Both police and army forces were noticeably absent from Suez streets since the protests and sit-in first erupted last Monday.
The number of protesters in the square has also diminished since Tuesday evening, according to eye witnesses.
Activist Abdel-Aziz Kamel told DNE that at about 5 pm on Tuesday, five thugs appeared on El-Arbaein, terrifying the protesters by firing gunshots in the air and attacking reporters on the scene with batons.
“Since then, army forces were deployed on El-Arbaein. They search whoever steps inside the square,” Kamel said.
The Suez residents, meanwhile, planned to resume their sit-in in the evening, while many intend to go to Cairo’s Tahrir Square to take part in the mass protest scheduled for Friday.
Ahmed El-Kilany, one of the lawyers representing the martyrs’ families, said the release of the officers may enable the defendants to pressure witnesses to change their testimonies or tamper with evidence.
He claimed that the officers were released even before the court order was issued.
“One day prior to the court session, there were [rumors] that the officers’ lawyers said the defendants would be released on bail,” El-Kilany said.
According to El-Kilany, the release of the officers, including the former police directorate chief and his deputy, may enable them to coerce witnesses to have them drop the cases.
“Other complaints were filed before the general prosecutor, accusing 41 police officers and low-ranking policemen of using live ammunition against peaceful demonstrators,” Eissa said.
Suez witnessed the most intense clashes at the beginning of an 18-day uprising starting January 25 that led to the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.
“We will continue the sit-in even after Friday until the prosecutor general looks into the complaint,” Eissa said.
The first Egyptian to die in the uprising, Moustafa Ragab Mohamed, was from Suez. He was shot on the night of Jan. 25.
Official reports say that 29 were killed and 1,000 others injured in Suez during clashes with security.
