Following protests and pressure from activists over the past few months, Mohanad Samir, injured and arrested during the Cabinet clashes, has been arrested although still he awaits trial. The move is regarded as success for groups advocating for the release of those arrested since 25 January 2011.
The activist was one of 269 arrested while taking part in a sit-in outside the Cabinet which turned violent last year. Samir claims he saw a police officer shoot a fellow protester and police have since falsified claims against him.
Tamer Goma’a, Samir’s lawyer said that on 20 October, the Cairo Criminal Court ordered the release of Samir.
Prison officials told Samir’s family that he was kept in prison for filing a complaint against Hussein Tantawi, former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, and former Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Sami Anan. “How can he be in custody because of a case that he is complaining in? He is the victim,” said Goma’a.
“The boy was very frustrated,” Abdel-Kader said.
Goma’a then filed a complaint against the prison authority to the prosecutor general, who ordered that Samir be released or an investigation be opened up within the prison administration, for detaining a citizen without the right to do so.
“The prison administration was compelled to release him,” Goma’a said.
Abdel-Kader learned on Monday afternoon while she was in a sit-in advocating his release, that Samir had been moved to the Cairo Directorate of Security.
“He stayed there for an hour or two and then he was moved to the Sayed Zeinab police station,” she said. When she got to the police station, she was told that Samir would not go home immediately and that there were procedures that need to be done, which would take about two days.
Abdel-Kader insisted that her son was released and a top official in the police station finally did finish the procedures in a matter of two hours.
The case against Samir and the rest of the Cabinet protesters is still ongoing. Abdel-Kader said that Samir was accused of, “everything… making Molotov cocktails, burning the Science Institute,” among other charges.
Samir was arrested in January, after leaving the hospital where he was being treated for being shot in the thigh at the Cabinet protest. “When Ramy Al-Sharqawy [another protester] came to his aid, he was killed, Samir said he can identify the police officer,” Goma’a said.
Samir went to the Cairo Directorate of Security to identify the officer, but was detained. “They falsified charges against him,” Goma’a said.
Goma’a said that the case is continuing, unless the law President Mohamed Morsy announced earlier this month, ordering the release of those arrested for taking part in the revolution, includes defendants in the Cabinet clashes.
