Timeline: Egypt ’emergency’ arrests
As parliament extends the state emergency law, we look at arrests that were made this year.
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Egyptian security forces have always clamped down hard on protestors [Adam Makary]
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The Egyptian parliament has extended the decades-long emergency lawthat was put in place after the assasination of Anwar Sadat, the late Egyptian president, almost 30 years ago.
The government has decided to ease some of those original restrictions, although the law would still apply to terror and drugs cases.
Analysts argue that the latest step is a legal ploy that masks the law’s violation of basic human rights.
The following is a list of arrests made under the emergency law this year:
May 4 – Egyptian police search the home of Muslim brotherhood leaders Gamal Heshmat and Ossama Suleiman, in a “planned ambush” following their surprise arrest in the northern city of Damanhour. The leaders were calling for democratic reforms.
April 28 – An Egyptian court convicts 26 men of planning terrorist attackson ships and tourist sites. The men, given prison terms of various lengths – some with hard labour – are accused of working for the Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shia group.
April 6 – More than 90 people are detained in Cairo for taking part in demonstrations calling for political reform. Many protestors are beaten and kicked. Ayman Nour, the former presidential candidate, and several members of his al-Ghad political party are reportedly assaulted and prevented from leaving the party’s offices in central Cairo.
March 15 – Egyptian police arrest 15 students at Cairo University for taking part in anti-Israeli demonstrations. A security official says that the detainees are associated with the banned opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.
March 12 – Muslim Brotherhood leaders are arrested from their homes, 53 protestors are arrested outside Abu Magda Mosque in Al-Ismaliya and 70 more in Maidan al-Sharqiya, of which eight are women, following demonstrations against the lockdown of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by Israeli forces.
Feburary 8 – Mahmoud Ezzat, the Islamic Brotherhood’s newly elected deputy leader, and two other members of the group’s guidance council – identified as Essam el-Erian and Abdul-Rahman el-Bir – are arrested for “engaging in banned political activity”.
January 31 – Security forces arrest 26 suspects who the prosecutor says belong to a cell of militant group Islamic Jihad and are plotting “terrorist acts” against tourists and state installations. The suspects are arrested in the provinces of Mansoura and Dakahiliya on the Nile Delta, according to police officials the group possess firearms, ammunition and explosives.