The number of political activists who have been recently detained is on the increase, recalling, in the minds of many, the practices of former president Hosni Mubarak against the country's opposition figures. On Sunday, the Tanta Misdemeanours Court postponed the trial of political activist Ahmed Doma until 13 May, after his case was referred to another court. Doma, who will remain in custody until the next court session, faces charges of insulting the president, allegedly calling President Mohamed Morsi “a criminal”, “a murderer”, and “a fugitive from justice”. The charges levelled at Doma, legal experts say, could lead to one to two years in prison. Doma's lawyer said the judge of the court lacked the proper jurisdiction to release Doma, and this was why he had referred him to another court. Doma handed himself in to the Tanta prosecution service last week after a warrant for his arrest was issued. He is also accused of inciting violence during last March's clashes at the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Muqattam. Khaled Ali, a former presidential elections candidate and one of Doma's lawyers, demanded his immediate release since the reasons behind extending Doma's detention were “unknown”. “Although his eight-day imprisonment is listed at the prosecutor-general's office, the legal justification behind his detention is still unknown to us,” Ali said. While the case relates to alleged insults against the president, the legal actions had been marred by violations, according to Ali, because the attorney-general had referred the case to the Tanta prosecution service without the defendant's knowledge and he only knew about it from the newspapers. Doma had voluntarily handed himself in to the prosecution service after hearing about the order of his arrest from the media, Ali said. His detention sparked demonstrations across Egypt, and in Cairo hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Press Syndicate, demanding the immediate release of political activists including Doma. On Saturday, the Arab Youth Movement and activists from the 6 April Movement protested before the High Court to call for Doma's release. The protesters carried banners calling for his release, and they then headed to the Press Syndicate in the downtown area. In Gharbiya governorate, dozens of activists and revolutionary youth staged a sit-in before the Tanta Misdemeanours Court in solidarity with Doma and demanding his release. Elsewhere, dozens of protesters rallied in front of the security directorate in Beheira. Activist and member of the Dostour Party Shadi Al-Ghazali Harb said that he believed the arrest of activists was an indication of attempts to “liquidate the revolutionary youth” as the ruling Muslim Brotherhood was aware that they “are the only obstacle in the face of its state”. “We [the revolutionary youth] rebelled against the Mubarak regime, and no one can nullify the revolutionary wave against the fascist Brotherhood regime,” Harb said during a press conference on Saturday in solidarity with Doma. “Activist detainees won't be freed without a revolution against the Muslim Brotherhood,” Harb said, adding that “we will release our detained activists the same way the Muslim Brotherhood freed their leaders following the 25 January Revolution.” He said that the charges facing Doma were “also facing us. If the Brotherhood wants to try him, they must try us all first.” Doma, a member of the Popular Current of the Coalition of Revolutionary Youth, the Youth for Justice and Freedom Movement, and several other revolutionary and political movements, was imprisoned during the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on charges of incitement and vandalism during the so-called cabinet clashes in December 2011. He was conditionally released in April 2012 pending further investigations. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has expressed its concerns at his detention on charges of insulting the president. It has also called for the deletion of Article 179 of the penal code, which is related to insulting the head of state. Hafez Abu Seada, the head of the EOHR, stated that the article was a major restriction on freedom of expression and the press, which are guaranteed by international standards of human rights. Political analyst Ammar Ali Hassan said that the case was a political one. “These are definitely political cases based on an old law that was used by former presidents Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Anwar Al-Sadat as well as ousted former president Mubarak, who also used it once,” Hassan told Al-Ahram Weekly. “Consequently, this law was political from the start, and it is being used excessively by Morsi.” He said that the objective behind the arrest of activists was to force them to treat the president more respectfully. Political activist and former spokesman of the 6 April Movement Mahmoud Afifi also believed that the cases were political in nature. “Of course these are political cases aiming at weakening the opposition and terrorising activists,” Afifi told the Weekly. “The regime is fully aware of the abilities of the activists, and hence it is trying to curb them,” he added. Activist Hassan Mustafa's appeal was postponed until 18 May during a court hearing on Saturday. Mustafa was sentenced to two years in prison in March, after he was arrested and accused of physically attacking prosecutor Ahmed Darwish on 21 January. Darwish accused Mustafa of slapping him on the face. The court refused to release Mustafa pending trial, although the judge stated the verdict against Mustafa issued in March was not enforceable. Mustafa is a well-known activist in Alexandria who was previously arrested on 6 April 2008 during a demonstration in support of the Mahalla workers' strike. Earlier last month, Abdel-Rahman Mohsen, or “Manno”, a member of the 6 April Democratic Front, was arrested along with seven other youths, following dawn raids by police. The men were accused of being affiliated with the Black Bloc, and during their trial late last month dozens of protesters demonstrated in front of Al-Tagammu Al-Khamis Court in New Cairo in solidarity with the eight activists. Seven others were arrested during the protests. “The seven activists arrested during the solidarity sit-in in front of the court in New Cairo were transferred to the Criminal Court after 48 hours,” Islam Khalifa, a lawyer defending the activists allegedly affiliated with the Black Bloc, told the Weekly, adding that he had been astonished by the speed of the procedures against them. The 6 April Democratic Front has announced that it will organise demonstrations in different governorates against the detainment of Manno as well as other detainees. “We will employ all the means available to us against such practices by the Interior Ministry,” the front declared. The group added that the Interior Ministry had been imprisoning youth activists and conducting dawn raids on their homes “under the pretext of protecting the state”. In addition to Manno, Hamada Al-Masri, another arrested activist, has now been detained for over two months. Al-Masri is not a member of a political group, but is being tried under allegations that he transported a car-bomb. “Such transgressions accumulate and prove that the regime does not believe in democracy and freedom,” Hassan said, adding that this increased tension and caused a decline in trust between the revolutionary forces and the regime. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Democratic Party issued a statement condemning the “kidnapping of activist Doma”. In the statement, the secretariat of the Rights and Freedoms Committee of the party condemned the regime's tactics against activists such as Al-Masri, Mustafa and others, who it said had been detained without proper investigation. Afifi said that the revolutionaries must unite against the Brotherhood, since “what is coming is much worse, and therefore there should be a single front to counter the attack against the revolutionary youth.” “Such violations may be offset by a new revolutionary wave against the Brotherhood,” he added.
