• 06:17
  • Friday ,12 August 2016
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Egyptian activists Mahinour El-Masry, Youssef Shabaan released from prison

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09:08

Sunday ,14 August 2016

Egyptian activists Mahinour El-Masry, Youssef Shabaan released from prison
Egyptian leftist political activists Mahinour El-Masry and Youssef Shaaban were released after serving 15 months in prison for "storming" an Alexandria police station in 2013. 
 
El-Masry, a human rights lawyer and Shaaban, a journalist were released Saturday afternoon.
 
They were sentenced along with eight other defendants to 20 years in prison in February 2015, on charges of "protesting without authorisation", "storming" Alexandria's Raml police station, "damaging property" and "injuring policemen" in March 2013.
 
In a retrial in May 2015, Mahinour El-Masry and two other defendants including Shaaban were sentenced to 15 months in prison.
 
Well-known activist El-Masry served four months of a six-month sentence in 2014 in a different case for charges of "illegal protesting" during the Khaled Said murder retrial in December 2013.
 
During her four months in jail, before the sentence was suspended, El-Masry was awarded the 2014 Ludovic Trarieux Award for her contributions to the defence of human rights.
 
Taher Mokhtar, a physician who is a member of the Doctors Syndicate's freedoms' committee, was released on Thursday after over six months in detention, along with his two roommates. All three were arrested in January for allegedly inciting protests for the fifth anniversary of the 25 January revolution. Investigations into the case are continuing.
 
NGOs and human rights organisations had called for the release of Mokhtar and his housemates, highlighting his long advocacy for human rights and for prisoners' access to medical assistance.