(AFP File Photo)
The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) demanded the public prosecution assign an investigative judge to the Black Bloc case following what it said were numerous violations by State Security prosecutors.
In a statement on Wednesday ANHRI accused the Supreme State Security Prosecution of denying defence lawyers the right to a copy of the case file and ultimately not having any evidence against the detainees.
“The [prosecution] has yet to face the defendants with any evidence against them which proves there is no evidence pointing towards their involvement in this case,” the statement said. “Furthermore there is no physical evidence seized from the crime scene to implicate them.”
It added that despite the lack of evidence the prosecution still ordered their detention on remand and renewed it several times, which ANHRI claims to demonstrate bias on the prosecution’s part, hence the request for an independent investigation judge to be assigned to the case.
“The defendants were arrested arbitrarily from different places and there is no evidence against them. We await the intervention of the prosecutor general who proves day after day his failure to achieve justice, and demand he respond to the requests of defence lawyers and commission a judge to investigate the case so that the State Security Prosecution’s abuse of the detainees may end,” the statement went on.
ANHRI also issued a direct demand to the prosecutor general to allow defence lawyers access to the case files following the State Security Prosecution’s repeated denials.
Eight detainees were arrested in early morning police raids on their homes in April after the prosecutor general issued an arrest warrant for 22 alleged Black Bloc members.
The Black Bloc emerged in Egypt around the second anniversary of the 25 January Revolution. Since then, dozens of protesters have been accused of belonging to the Black Bloc, a group the government has designated as a “terrorist organisation”. At least 50 people were arrested for allegedly being Black Bloc members since January.
Youth for Justice and Freedom announced they would march on Wednesday to the house of Abdel Rahman Al-Araby, one of the detainees, to demand his and other detainees’ release.
The movement said it plans to collect signatures for the Tamarod campaign before the march.
