Head of the Lawyers Syndicate Sameh Ashour requested on Sunday that Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel Ghaffar allow Malek Adly’s defence lawyers to visit him in prison.
Ashour demanded that prison regulations be applied to Adly and that the defendant be allowed to exercise.
In a statement, Ashour said the law must be implemented without bias against any defendant in prison, no matter their identity or the nature of the charges. Earlier this month, Ashour filed a similar request to the minister of interior and the deputy general, after Adly’s health had reportedly deteriorated due to mistreatment and isolation in his cell.
Adly’s defence team withdrew from the detention renewal session on Sunday after their request to assign an independent judge to the case was denied. This was to show their full legal support of the detained lawyer.
Adly was arrested in early May for opposing the maritime demarcation deal between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which would have transferred the sovereignty of two Red Sea Islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia.
The court accused Adly of spreading false information about the islands’ sovereignty through statements about the case. It accused him of inciting protests in an attempt to dismantle the regime, amending the Constitution, and for joining a group that works against the government and its institutions.
Since 2008, Adly has been an active defender of human rights. He is a co-founder of the Front of Defence for Egyptian Protestors (FDEP) and a member of the Freedoms Committee at the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP). Before his arrest, he was a head of the lawyers network at the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR).
Adly is standing trial along with a number of others that are being investigated and charged for opposing the maritime demarcation deal.
