After nearly two months of arbitrary detention, rights lawyer Malek Adly, Yanair Gate editor-in-chief Amr Badr, and journalist Mahmoud Al-Saqa were given their legal right to exercise outside their cells.
Following a visit on Monday, Badr’s wife, Noha El-Sawaf, said that the administration of Al-Mazraa prison in Tora allowed the three detainees out of their cells to exercise in the corridor for no more than 30 minutes on Monday. However, Adly’s exercise period did not coincide with the journalists’ period.
Lawyer Doaa Mostafa confirmed to Daily News Egypt that the three detainees were allowed out of their cells; however, she said that no one knows whether this will be a daily routine or was just a one-time allowance from the prison’s administration.
According to the law, all prisoners are allowed a daily, two-hour exercise period in the morning to receive direct exposure to sunlight. Despite the recent mitigation of illegal arbitrariness, the three detainees had not yet received these legal rights among others.
Meanwhile, the prosecution renewed on Tuesday the detention of Badr and Al-Saqa for 15 more days pending further investigations. Political activists Zizo Abdo, Haitham Mohamedain, and Hamdy Qeshta were brought before the Giza Emergency Prosecution over the same charges and also received a 15-day renewal.
They were detained in connection to the protests that broke out on 25 April over the transfer of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and charged with, among other charges, attempting to topple the regime.
Adly, on the other hand, is accused of plotting to overthrow the government, promoting publications that disrupt national security, and inciting the anti-government protests on 25 April.
