The Tanta Misdemeanour Court acquitted political activist Islam Khalil on Tuesday evening. He was most recently arrested on 21 October for writing “freedom for the detainees”, and on charges of vandalising public and private property.
He was released from custody on 23 October following two days of detention, pending investigations.
“The judge found that he hadn’t vandalised anything. There were also some mistakes in the prosecution’s memorandum. This resulted in Khalil being cleared of all charges,” the activist’s lawyer Halim Henish told Daily News Egypt.
He added that if Khalil were found guilty, he would have spent three months in jail or paid a fine of EGP 200, suspending the sentence. The arrest had no relevance to the security measures taken to combat the calls for 11 November protests, the lawyer said.
After spending more than 466 days in pre-trial detention for charges of belonging to a banned group, he was rearrested on his way to Talaat Harb, on the backdrop of a case that dates back to 2014, according to Henish.
Earlier in 2015, Khalil was accused of belonging to an outlawed group, and inciting violence that targeted state stability and security. Later, during his detention, he was confronted with another case which saw him accused of assaulting a number of police officers in Al-Raml second district police station, Alexandria.
Despite release orders for all charges, Khalil was still held behind bars because police station officials said they were still waiting for confirmation from the National Security Apparatus, Khalil’s brother, Nour, told Daily News Egypt.
He had been detained since 24 May 2015, and on 31 August 2016, the East Alexandria Court released him on EGP 50,000 bail.
