• EGYPT
  • August 24, 2015
  • 3 minutes read

Rabaa Detainees Association: Free the Innocent; Comply with Egyptian Law

Rabaa Detainees Association: Free the Innocent; Comply with Egyptian Law

 We, the families of the patriotic men and women arbitrarily rounded up and detained in the security forces’ violent break-up of the Rabaa sit-in, case number 15899 for the year 2013, make this urgent appeal to all human rights organizations and NGOs to take all the legal procedures to secure the release of our loved ones who have been held in remand for two years now – to comply with Article 143 of the Law 145 Criminal Procedure of 2006 as amended from Law 150 Criminal Procedure of 1950.



As well as being innocent of involvement in any acts of violence or crimes punishable by the law, more than 439 people involved in the same lawsuit have been released by the same legal institutions. This is equivalent to two-thirds of the defendants in the same lawsuit.


Please comply with the law; do not humiliate Egyptian judiciary. The aforementioned Article 143 of the Law 145 Criminal Procedure of 2006 simply and clearly indicates it is obligatory to immediately release any detainee who completes two years of pre-trial detention without being tried and sentenced, which fully applies to the case of Rabaa break-up detainees as well as many similar cases.


We are not asking for anything more than the application of the law without discrimination. We consider that refusing to enforce the law is a clear and explicit insult to Egyptian justice, a worse crime than insulting the judiciary by objecting to some of the judges’ unacceptable actions, for which many have been jailed.


We hereby make a clear demand for the immediate release of the Rabaa detainees in compliance with the law, especially as they never committed any crime, and most of them were rounded up from the outer perimeter of Rabaa Square or from the ‘safe corridors’ as they responded to orders of security authorities at the time. Once again, we remind authorities that more than two-thirds of the defendants in the same case have been released. Our loved ones are in exactly the same legal position as those released.


Finally, we say to you: Please apply the law.