Aya Hegazy case spotlights Egypt's pretrial detention law
Human rights activists welcome a proposed limitation on pretrial detentions in Egypt, but some remain skeptical that the amendment would make a real difference on the ground.
The Egyptian parliament is currently drafting a bill to amend a provision of the country's criminal code that allows for a pretrial detention of up to two years. The proposed draft law would put a six-month ceiling on pretrial detention, slashing the current legal limit to a quarter of the period permitted by the current law.
Public debate on what rights activists say is a much-needed amendment was sparked by the acquittal in mid-April of dual US-Egyptian citizen and founder of the Belady Foundation Aya Hegazy, her husband Mohamed Hassanein and six co-defendants in the notorious Belady Foundation case. They spent three years in pretrial detention after their arrest on May 1, 2014, in a police raid on their nongovernmental organization, which provided shelter and services for Cairo’s street children. They were charged with operating an unlicensed organization, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of children and inciting anti-government protests.
Despite the lack of evidence against them, the former detainees were held in custody for over 35 months — well beyond the two-year limit for pre-trial and provisional detention specified by Egyptian law.
While Hegazy and her husband have since been released, their acquittal after their prolonged detention has spotlighted the plight of thousands of political detainees who may be suffering a similar fate. It has also sounded the alarm on the Egyptian authorities increasing use of the punitive measure since June 2013 “to silence activists, journalists and political dissidents,” according to rights advocates.
