On 28 June 2016, after more than a year of arbitrary detention and exposure to torture, eight young women were liberated from Port-Said prison after their acquittal by Damietta Criminal Court in Egypt, while two others remain detained to date.
This comes after ten young women were arrested, arbitrarily detained and tortured as they were peacefully demonstrating in Damietta in May 2015. Alkarama had already documented this case reporting violations of their basic fundamental rights – such as arbitrary arrest involving violence, incommunicado detention in appalling conditions, torture – and referred them to the competent United Nations mechanisms, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT). On 28 June 2016, eight out of ten, namely Sara Mohamed Ramadan, Habiba Shata, Aya Hossam Al Shehata, Fatima Ayad, Mariam Tork, Fatima Tork, Sara Hamdi Anwar and Kholod El Fallaghy, were released from Port-Said detention facility after being acquitted by Damietta Criminal Court . Two others, Esraa Abdo Farhat and Rawda Khater, remain detained and their next hearing is scheduled for end of September 2016.
Although welcoming the release of these eight young women, Alkarama remains deeply concerned over the continuous crackdown by Egyptian authorities on peaceful demonstrators in the country and recommends immediate measures to effectively end the widespread practice of torture and detention of political opponents. Furthermore, Alkarama urges the Egyptian Government to ensure that Esraa Abdo Farhat and Rawda Khater's mental and physical integrity be guaranteed, and that reports of torture be duly investigated and perpetrators brought to justice.
For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Tel : +41 22 734 1008).