(Photo courtesy of Maheinour El Masry Facebook Page)
Thirteen lawyers and activists arrested in Alexandria on Friday night for allegedly storming into Al-Raml Police Station were released Saturday night.
The lawyers and activists arrived at the police station to voice their solidarity with three political activists captured by Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) members and handed over to the police on Friday.
The detainees were released from Borg Al-Arab prosecution in the morning after the interrogation ended, said Hamdy Khalaf, a lawyer in Alexandria. They were released without bail. Lawyers Maheinour El-Massry, Amr Said, Mohamed Ramadan, Mohamed Samir, and Nasser Ahmed were among the detainees, in addition to journalist Youssef Shaaban.
During questioning, lawyers Mahienour El-Massry and Loa’I Nahwagi refused to respond to prosecutors’ questions.
“Their silence was an expression of their refusal to recognise the prosecutor general’s legitimacy,” said Khalaf. The Cairo Court of Appeals overturned on Wednesday President Mohamed Morsi’s decision to appoint Tala’at Abdallah as the prosecutor general. “They were also protesting the means used to arrest and detain them.”
Khalaf stated that Al-Raml policemen held a demonstration outside the police station on Sunday, protesting the detainees’ release. “It wasn’t enough to beat the lawyers, but they also wanted them sent to jail,” Khalaf sarcastically commented on the protest.
Lawyers’ Syndicate Chairman Sameh Ashour held an emergency meeting at the Alexandria Court of Appeals on Sunday, Khalaf said. The meeting was to determine the necessary procedures to be taken against the perpetrating policemen.
Khalaf, who was among the lawyers who went to Al-Raml Police Station on Friday, claimed to have been physically attacked by policemen there alongside about 20 other lawyers. The allegedly attacked lawyers included syndicate board members Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Mohamed Ibrahim. Khalaf added that the attacks all took place in the presence of Amin Ezz El-Din, Alexandria’s security director, and other security leaders.
The lawyers filed reports documenting the attacks they were allegedly subjected to. The lawyers’ medical reports following the alleged attacks were also attached to the reports, Khalaf said.
In an online statement, the Ministry of Interior accused protesters of attacking security forces, causing injury to eight police officers and three recruits. Security forces then had to “use force to control the situation”, according to the ministry’s statement.
Three men were apprehended by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and taken to the police station to be arrested earlier on Friday in Alexandria. Violence began when an anti-Brotherhood and anti-Morsi march encountered members of the Brotherhood near Sidi Gaber train station, according to the Al-Dostour spokesperson in Alexandria Haitham El-Hariri.
