CAIRO — An Egyptian judge Monday ordered the
release of a
human rights lawyer held in preventive detention for nearly four
years for backing a French protest movement, a rights group said.
اضافة اعلان
Mohamed Ramadan, 43, was arrested in September 2018
after posting on Facebook a picture of himself wearing a yellow vest in support
of the “yellow vest” protest movement that was rocking France at the time, the
Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said in a statement.
He was accused of “terrorism” and placed in
preventive detention — a punishment that can last two years in Egypt and during
which suspects are held without trial.
But when that term ended in 2020, Ramadan was
accused of “spreading fake news” and again placed in a two-year preventive
detention, the rights group said.
His announced release Monday comes just days after
French President Emmanuel Macron received his Egyptian counterpart
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Paris.
During Friday’s meeting focusing on security and
defense ties, the two leaders also “addressed the issue of human rights”,
Macron’s office said in a statement.
Egypt has come under frequent criticism for its
human rights record, with rights groups saying there are currently about 60,000
political prisoners, many facing brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.
According to the AFTE, Ramadan suffers from several
health problems “that deteriorated” during his detention.
The rights group says he did not receive “proper
medical attention” in jail.
Egypt is set to host the
COP27 climate summit in
November, a role Human Rights Watch has said “rewards” Sisi’s “repressive
rule”.
In April, Sisi reactivated the dormant Presidential
Pardon Committee and has since released dozens of prisoners from provisional
detention.
And earlier this month, authorities launched a
“national dialogue”, bringing together political parties and opposition
factions, at the behest of Sisi.
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