CAIRO: Authorities on Wednesday ordered the release of 21 pro-democracy activists who had been detained in recent weeks, a judicial source told AFP. The release of 21 activists has been ordered. They will be out of prison pending paperwork, the source said. The activists had been arrested after joining popular demonstrations in support of reformist judges on charges ranging from insulting the president to obstructing traffic. But the detention of two other activists, Karim Al-Shaer and Mohammed El Sharqawy, who had accused the police of assaulting them while in custody, was extended for another 15 days. In a letter smuggled out of his prison cell in May, El Sharqawy said he suffered abuse, including being sodomized by police with a rolled-up piece of cardboard. The abuses were strongly condemned by New York-based Human Rights Watch. Hundreds of protesters, including members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood group and the secular Kefaya (Enough) movement, had been detained in recent weeks. Egypt s judges, who are calling for their independence from the executive authority, have become a symbol of the drive for reform in Egypt. AFP
Pro-reform activists to be released
