CAIRO: The Appeals Court released Thursday 56 detainees pending investigations into their alleged involvement in the deadly clashes between protesters and the armed forces in front of Cabinet which left 17 dead and hundreds injured.
"There are still around 70 protesters in detention, we cannot confirm the numbers though, since more defendants are being arrested everyday," rights lawyer Ramy Ghanem told Daily News Egypt Thursday.
"Those were the ones whose detention we appealed and the appeal requests were accepted right away," he said.
An investigating judge summoned a number of prominent activists and politicians for their alleged involvement in funding thugs to infiltrate the protesters and cause a rift between them and the armed forces.
These included head of Ghad El-Thawra Party Ayman Nour, activist Nawara Negm, architect and political player Mamdouh Hamza, April 6 Youth Movement Democratic Front spokesman Tarek El-Khouly, and Imam of Omar Makram Mosque Sheikh Mazhar Shahin.
Nour was interrogated and released without bail but was banned from travel, while Hamza told Daily News Egypt that he refuses to appear before the judge.
The judge adjourned the interrogation of the rest of the group to Jan. 15, saying that he was "paralyzed" by the crowds who came to support El-Khouly, Shahin and Negm who refused to be interrogated in the absence of her lawyers.
The Front to Defend Egyptian Protesters will hold a press conference Sunday to comment on the proceedings of the investigations in the probe.
