The Supreme State Security Prosecution has renewed the detention of the blogger Shady Abu Zeid on a new case, days after his release from case 621 of 2018. Shady has spent 22 months in prison on charges of publishing false news and joining a terrorist group. The court decided on Tuesday to release him and he was transferred to a police station in preparation for his release, but the prosecution decided to renew his detention on another case with the same charges. Shady is not the first political detainee who has been subjected to this revolving door process. Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, leader of the Strong Egypt Party, and his deputy Mohamed al-Qassas, have also been released by courts only to be put on new cases with similar charges.
Amnesty International has published a report about this process, which is used by Egyptian authorities to prevent the release of political detainees, and called it “the revolving door” policy.
Shady was arrested by security forces on May 6 2018 from his home, and appeared on May 8 at the Supreme State Security Prosecution. In mid-January 2019, Abu Zeid’s father died and the prison administration allowed him to attend the funeral after his lawyer filed a request. He was unable to be with his father during his illness.
