WATANI International
19 December 2010
Out of a total 154 Copts detained following the Umraniya riots early this month, 70 were released last Monday by order of prosecutor-general Abdel-Mageed Mahmoud. Those released included the injured and the students who had to sit for examinations.
The prosecution, according to Mr Mahmoud, is still looking into the cases of the other 84 detainees, whose detention has been extended for 15 days pending investigation.
The lawyers representing the church and the detainees had submitted pleas for the release of those detained, and asked the prosecution to take into consideration their health conditions and the fact that many were due to sit for examinations.
Pope Shenouda III, who was dismayed at the turn events had taken in the Umraniya incident, had gone into retreat at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi al-Natroun. Some activists criticised the move as interference on the part of the Church in civil affairs, but Church sources explained that the Pope was exercising his basic role of praying for his congregation, especially in dire times.
Heavy-handed
In the meantime, some 14 human rights groups signed a joint declaration in which they denounced what they termed the heavy-handed security response to the Coptic rioters. The Copts of Talbiya in Umraniya, Giza, had violently demonstrated on 24 November in the wake of a security attack against them for using a community service Church-owned building as a [non-licensed] church. License to build a church requires arduous administrative and security permits which may take years on end—if they get issued at all. The security forces opened fire against the Copts, killing two and injuring scores.
Some 157 Copts were charged with mobbing, the determination to kill policemen on duty, and possession of unlicensed white weapons for terrorist purposes. Such charges carry sentences of some 15 years in prison.
The joint declaration by the human rights groups condemned the random and inhumane capture of Copts during and in the aftermath of the riots, including women and children. Persons who had nothing to do with the riots were caught as they walked down the streets or sat at cafés for the mere fact that they were Copt; the violent manner in which they were caught left 76 of them injured.
The lawyers who volunteered to represent the detainees, the declaration said, were harassed by the security men and deprived of attending the questioning. The injured were forced to leave hospitals before getting adequate treatment, and moved to Qanater and Turah prisons. Their lawyers were not allowed to see them. According to the declaration, the 76 detainees who had to stand before the prosecution were denied the right to have lawyers with them.
Detainees not captives
The human rights organisations and movements that signed the joint declaration denounced the unprecedented security harassment of the lawyers and their prevention from attending with the detainees, as well as the silence of the prosecution in the face of such actions. They also denounced the “intentional medical neglect of the injured”.
The declaration demanded that the families and lawyers of the detainees should be allowed to see them, and that the injured should be returned to hospital for resumption of treatment. It appealed to the authorities concerned to take prompt action “to put an end to the security farce in which the detainees were treated not as defendants but as captives.
