By Marwa Al-A’asar
CAIRO: A Cairo lawyer contested Wednesday before the Prosecutor General what he described as the “illegal renewal of the detention” of his client, activist Wael Aboul-Leil.
According to lawyer Ahmed El-Guizawy, Aboul-Leil was accused of attacking members of the armed forces as well as inciting riots on April 8 and 9 in Tahrir Square.
On Tuesday he was remanded in custody for the fifth time for 15 days pending further investigations.
“Legally, Aboul-Leil’s detention can only be renewed three times, a total of 45 days, after which a prisoner is either released or charged because the case is classified as a misdemeanor not as a felony,” El-Guizawy told Daily News Egypt.
“But the investigative judge of the fact-finding commission that is looking into the case is dealing with it as a felony,” he added.
A military court had earlier acquitted Aboul-Leil of the same charges. “But he is now being prosecuted before a civil court over similar charges,” the lawyer said.
El-Guizawy filed a complaint before the Prosecutor General, accusing the investigative judge overlooking the case of illegally detaining Aboul-Leil as well as refusing to allow the lawyer to read the case file.
“I also challenged the discrepancy in the testimonies, since the same witnesses made different testimonies before the military prosecution and the civil one,” El-Guizawy said, adding that he will file a lawsuit accusing some of them of perjury.
On May 12, a military court acquitted 41-year old Aboul-Leil of accusations of inciting thuggery against the protesters and the armed forces in Tahrir Square on April 8 and the early hours of the following day. However, he was released and transferred to Tora Prison instead.
On April 8, eight uniformed army officers joined tens of thousands of protestors in Tahrir Square. They called for the resignation of the Minister of Defense and head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy and demanded the prosecution of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
In the early hours of April 9, army soldiers dispersed an overnight sit-in in the iconic square. One protester was shot dead by an unidentified shooter. Eyewitnesses said protesters were protecting the dissident army officers from being arrested.
The SCAF referred to the protesters as “outlaws,” suggesting they might be led by senior members of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP), including Ibrahim Kamel, who was also accused of involvement in the Feb. 2 attacks in Tahrir dubbed the Battle of the Camel.
In its 34th statement, the SCAF announced that Kamel’s followers and others including Aboul-Leil, who was identified as his office manager, were to be arrested. The statement accused them of being in Tahrir Square in violation of a curfew in the early hours of April 9, to bully and terrorize civilians.
However, in a video recording uploaded on YouTube on April 10, Aboul-Leil denied ever working for Ibrahim Kamel. “It seems somebody heard me … in Tahrir while I talked to a lawyer saying I worked for someone called Kamel Abu Ali. Sometime later, rumors spread indicating I was working for Ibrahim Kamel who hired thugs [to attack protesters],” Aboul-Leil said.
“I never met Ibrahim Kamel or even know what he looks like,” he added.
Aboul-Leil said he worked in the tourism sector in Hurghada when the revolution erupted.
Youth Coalition member Shady El-Ghazaly Harb previously told DNE he saw Aboul-Leil several times protesting in Tahrir before Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, and that he got to know him personally later on as a revolutionary activist.
Outspoken TV host and journalist Wael El-Ebrashy mentioned similar facts about Aboul-Leil in media statements.
