CAIRO: Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud overturned Monday a case against an Egyptian translator, an Australian journalist and American student, detained on allegations of inciting citizens to participate in a nationwide strike in Mahalla.
"After meeting with representatives from Australian and American embassies, Mahmoud decided to drop all the charges against the detainees," member of No to Military Trials Campaign Shahira Abouellail told Daily News Egypt.
Translator Aliya Alwi was arrested Saturday with American student Derek Ludovici and Australian journalist Austin Mackell who traveled to Mahalla to cover the strike called for by activists against military rule.
Alwi remained briefly detained at the Mahalla police station Monday pending the “green light” from Homeland Security, after the Mahalla prosecution ordered her release.
"The Mahalla police station was technically detaining Alwi on no legal grounds," Lawyer Ragia Omran said early on Monday.
Before the decision to overturn the case, it was expected that both Mackell and Ludovici would be deported after being referred to Homeland Security on Monday and back to the prosecution the following day, Abouellail said.
Veteran labor activist Kamal El-Fayoumi who was rumored to be arrested by police with the group, was interrogated by the prosecution as a witness rather than a defendant, since he was interviewed by Mackell to comment on the calls for civil disobedience, Omran told Daily News Egypt.
He was detained when he went to the police to ask about the arrested trio. He we went home Sunday night, according to Abouellail.
El-Fayoumi is one of three activists who were arrested by authorities in 2008 in what was known as the April 6 strike. The security crackdown left three dead and hundreds injured and arrested. The event gave rise to the April 6 Youth Movement widely credited for spearheading the January 25 uprising.
When El-Fayoumi was released in 2008, he co-founded El-Mahalla Textile Workers Union, and has been described as "a working class hero." He is also a member of the Democratic Labor Party.
"Charges [were] brought against [us] of inciting protest and vandalism. Witnesses have been produced to confirm them," Alwi tweeted on Saturday from inside the police station.
