Mahienour El Massry Among Six Activists Released from Prison

Four of the six Egyptian activists who have recently been released

Human rights lawyer and activist Mahienour El Massry and journalists Mostafa Al Asar, Moataz Wadnan, and Esraa Abdelfattah were released from prison on Sunday 18 July, reported state media Al-Ahram.

Mahienour’s release came on Sunday, according to a statement released by her sister, Maysoon El Massry on her Facebook account and the Egyptian Public Prosecution cited by Ahram Online, which added that Mostafa and Moataz would also be released after having been arrested for questioning.

The other activists and journalists, Esraa Abdelfattah, Gamal El-Gamal, and Abdel-Nasser Ismail, were released from prison a day earlier, reports Al-Ahram.

Mahienour El Massry and Esraa Abdelfattah have been in pretrial detention at Al Qanater women’s prison in the Menoufia governorate since they were arrested in 2019.

Mahienour is an Alexandrian human rights lawyer and has been detained since 22 September 2019. Meanwhile, Esraa, a human rights activist and a journalist, was detained on 12 October 2019.

The journalists Mostafa Al Asar and Moataz Wadnan have been in pretrial detention since February 2018 for the case (No.1898/2019) which revolved around participating and aiding terrorist groups by spreading false information through their online platforms.

According to Amnesty International, the four individuals Mahienour El Massry, Esraa Abdelfattah faced the same charges as Mostafa Al Asar, and Moataz Wadnan who were charged with terrorism, releasing and spreading false rumors, and misuse of social media. However, many activists launched offline and online campaigns to express solidarity with their cases such as the ‘Free Mahienour’ campaign on social media.