Since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power in 2014, the regime has used the judiciary to punish its critics, employing enforced disappearance, arbitration detention, and the ‘rotation’ of sentences to silence all opposition.
On Thursday, an Egyptian criminal court accepted a public prosecutor’s appeal to continue the detention of political activist Mohamed Adel, who is serving his 45th day of pretrial detention, after the same court decided only yesterday, Wednesday 14 September, to release Adel on a modest bail.
Adel’s detention is related to case number 4118 of 2018, according to which he faces charges of “spreading false news”, “misusing social media”, and “participating in a terrorist group”, all of which are routinely used against regime critics.
This the third case Adel has been involved in since he was first detained in 2018, as an example of the regime’s infamous use of ‘rotation’ of cases against detainees.
Adel was first detained on June 19, 2018, whilst he was being subjected to daily supervision at a local police station in the Dakahlia Governorate, as part of the so-called “Shura Council episode”.
As he was leaving the police station, he was charged with “assembly and show of force”, relating to a case initiated in 2013.
Adel, born on 8 August, 1988, is one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, which called for the general strike in Egypt in 2008. Adel served as the movement’s official spokesperson during the rule of the late President Hosni Mubarak.
