Unjust Sentences to Intimidate Opponents: Release the “Hope” Detainees

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

Amid the regime’s false promises of a “Human Rights Strategy,” the imaginary end of the state of emergency, and the mirage of a “promised democratic breakthrough,” the Supreme State Security Emergency Misdemeanors Court issued more unjust sentences on Wednesday. The court handed down harsh prison sentences to detainees Ziad El-Eleimy (5 years with hard labor), Hisham Fouad (4 years), Hossam Moanis (4 years), Mohamed Bahensi, and Hossam Abdel Nasser, in addition to those sentenced in absentia.

These sentences, intended by the regime to further intimidate opponents, were issued in case number 957 of 2021. The charges—vague and befitting only a brutal dictatorship—were based on publishing false news through opinion articles opposing the regime. The regime consistently employs judicial rulings to serve the repression of opponents in a retaliatory campaign it has waged for many years against politicians, journalists, trade unionists, and anyone expressing an opinion against the regime or even just not aligning with its directions and goals.

This case originally stemmed from case number 930 of 2019 Supreme State Security, known as the “Hope Coalition Case.” These detainees, most of whom belong to different political currents, have spent nearly two and a half years in pretrial detention on this case, in violation of the legally prescribed limit for pretrial detention (only two years). The regime used the new case, which is essentially a derivative of the “Hope” case and appended to it, to ensure these detainees remain in prison, in a blatant circumvention of pretrial detention laws, for indefinite periods. This method has become a routine practice by the regime in recent years, known as “recycling” detainees into new cases to persecute them.

Moreover, the “Hope” detainees endure incredibly harsh conditions in prison, from being deprived of exercise and visits to the lack of healthcare and medical neglect. El-Eleimy suffers from asthma and high blood pressure, and he developed a heart effusion during his detention. Fouad suffers from cartilage and back pain.

These sentences unequivocally reveal the falsity of the formal procedures the regime has taken in recent months. They indicate that the “Human Rights Strategy” and the end of the state of emergency were merely to improve the regime’s image abroad and fend off human rights criticisms from several countries.

While we condemn these unjust sentences and the trials of opinion cases that lack the minimum guarantees of justice, we demand the immediate release of the Hope Case detainees. We stand in solidarity with all detainees in the regime’s prisons who continue to suffer persecution and deprivation of their rights.