“Mubarak dragged Egypt down,” President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi told an audience of journalists and intellectuals, said Abdallah al-Sennway, who was among them Tuesday.
Sennawy added in an interview with al-Hayat al-Youm (Life Today) talk show on al-Hayat channel that the President tackled reasons and reforms that could push the country forward. Sennawy continued that the meetings discussed the problem of “open-ended remand;” Although the Egyptian Criminal Code stipulates that the remand period shall not exceed 2 years in jail, many prisoners have been kept in remand for more than this fixed time.
“The attendants stressed the importance of ensuring opinion and freedom of expression without restrictions, providing a favorable environment for culture and thoughts,” stated Presidential Spokesperson Alaa Youssef.
The group of journalists and intellectuals also demanded issuing amnesty to all political prisoners, and abolishing the protest law and the charge contempt of religion, according to a Facebook post by Novelist Ibrahim Abdel Maguid, who attended the meeting.
Abdel Maguid said he tackled Mahmoud’s story as an example of unlawful detention, addressing the president “How can a 7000-yr old state be happy for the imprisonment of a young man for wearing a t-shirt written on it a ‘Nation without Torture,’ what if it was a nation full of torture?”
