CAIRO: Forty protesters arrested over the storming of the Israeli embassy on Sept. 9 will be tried before a military court on Monday and Tuesday, as the military prosecution extended the imprisonment of eight others for 15 days pending investigations.
Military police and Central Security Forces (CSF) detained over 200 civilians on Sept.9 and 10, most of whom were randomly arrested and tortured according to their families and lawyers before being referred to the military prosecution or the state security emergency prosecution.
Coordinator of "No to Military Trials for Civilians" campaign Mona Seif said that those who received 15 days pending investigations are waiting to be referred to military courts as soon as the prosecution sets a date for their trial.
"My son was coming home from work near El-Gama’a Bridge when he found himself in the midst of the clashes and was randomly arrested by military police," said father of detainee Ramy Gad, at a press conference Thursday.
"I served in the army in 1967 and 1973 and survived seven bullet wounds; it seems that my reward is the trial of my son in front of a military court," he said.
Fady Moustafa El-Sayed, 19, is a student at the Cinema Institute who works at a media agency near the Giza Security Directorate where clashes escalated on the night of Sept. 9 and continued into the next day.
"He went there to submit his work and was randomly arrested and severely beaten by Central Security Forces (CSF)…and tried in front of the military prosecution,” said his mother.
"I’m not appealing to the military council, I’m appealing to the Egyptian people to free my son. I’m not going to cry because we paid for our freedom with blood in Tahrir Square," she added, referring to the mass protests that toppled the former regime earlier this year, where one of the main demands was putting an end to the emergency law.
El-Sayed’s friends at the Cinema Institute have announced that they will boycott classes in protest until their colleague is released.
General Adel El-Mursi, head of the military judiciary, had praised in an earlier interview with Egyptian state TV the independence of the military justice system.
"Military judges cannot be sacked, imprisoned or controlled, and the only authority over them is the authority of their conscience. The military judiciary upholds all the guarantees of independence available to the civilian judiciary," he said.
He explained that seven categories inside the military institution are subject to the laws of the military judiciary, including officers serving in the army, soldiers, civilians working in military institutions and students in military academies.
"In addition, Articles 4, 5 and 6 of the law stipulate that military law can be applied to other categories of civilians who commit crimes in areas under the military’s authority," he added.
