An Egyptian state security prosecutor has released human rights lawyer, Mohamed Ramadan, albeit with various conditions, after nearly four years of arbitrary detention.
Ramadan, Alexandrian labour and human-rights lawyer, was arrested on 10 December 2018, after he wore a high-visibility jacket in solidarity with the so-called ‘gilets Jaunes protests across France in that period.
Ramadan was ‘rotated’ with a new case in December 2020. His first case’s pretrial detention period lasted for more than two years, which constituted a violation of Egyptian law.
In the second case, Ramadan faced charges of ‘joining a terrorist group, promoting its ideas, spreading false news, possessing publications and using social networking sites to promote the group’s purposes, which the Egyptian regime routinely fabricates against its critics.
Although a Cairo criminal court decided to release him in June 2021, he against ‘rotated’ with a third case involving the same accusations that same year.
Ramadan experienced several waves of abuse whilst in detention, both in Borg el-Arab prison in Alexandria and in Tora prison in Cairo, including a ban on visitations since February 2019, a ban on exercise, and even a denial of visits to the prison clinic.
