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Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah released on bail

September 15, 2014
Surrounded by plainclothes policemen, Egyptian prominent blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, left, speaks to the crowd after attending, with his sister Sanaa, right, their father Ahmed Seif funeral in Cairo, Egypt, 28 August 2014. (Photo: AP)

The Cairo Criminal Court released on Monday political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and two other defendants on a 5000 Egyptian pound bail each pending their retrial for violating last year’s protest law. The judge overseeing the case announced stepping down, citing “disrespect”. Abdel Fattah and the 24 other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison in June for illegal assembly, among other charges. The retrial was taking place amid the detention of three defendants arrested after the issuance of the initial verdict; Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Nouby and Wael Metwalli. The judge recused himself from the trial due to an incident which occurred during the trial’s last session on Wednesday, said Mohamed Abdel Aziz, director of the Cairo-based al-Haqanya human rights centre and one of the lawyers representing the defendants. The court was watching videos presented by the prosecution as evidence in the case when the prosecution played a “personal” video for Abdel Fattah’s family, said Mahmoud Belal, among the defence team. The video was taken from the laptop of Abdel Fattah’s wife, confiscated during his arrest in November. “The police and the prosecution illegally obtained the video,” Belal had…


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