(DNE File Photo)
Five football fans of Zamalek SC were to undertake 15 days pre-trial detention by state security prosecution, accused of joining a “terrorist entity”.
Sayed Ali, Seif Kamel, Mahmoud El-Domiati, Abdallah Ghoneim and Anas Tawfik will stand again before the prosecution for investigations on 24 April. They are accused of attempting to topple the regime and joining a terrorist entity, according to friends.
A friend of El-Domiati, who preferred to speak anonymously, told Daily News Egypt that his friend was taken from his house six days ago, before appearing before prosecution.
The leftist political group, the Revolutionary Socialists, which has been following the cases of detained football fans, said the fans appeared before the prosecution Monday. They had already spent days in detention without information passed on regarding their whereabouts.
The group said that, after the prosecution’s decision, the detained fans were transported to different jails, among them Tora prison on the outskirts of Greater Cairo and Banha prison in Qaliubiya governorate.
In February, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi approved the “terrorist entities” law, detailing offences necessary for a group or organisation to be labelled as a “terrorist entity”. The law consists of 10 articles, of which Article 1 defines a terrorist entity as any group “practicing or intending to advocate by any means to disturb public order or endanger the safety of the community and its interests or risk its security or harm national unity”.
Egypt’s football hardcore fan groups, the ‘Ultras’, have become known for their anti-police and anti-government slogans, and are often involved in clashes with security forces. They played a prominent role in the 25 January Revolution and other confrontations with the police thereafter.
