The Egyptian State Security Court held the first session in a trial for the journalists Hesham Fouad and Hossam Mo’nis as well as the parliamentarian Ziad Elaimy in the case known in the media as “the case of suggestion,” as the prosecution charged the defendants with “suggesting” to the people the failure of some national projects and proclaiming the existence of political detainees in prison. The court postponed the trial until 20 October.

Ziad Elaimy is being prosecuted for two articles he wrote five years ago, which “suggested” that the widening of the Suez Canal, known as “the New Suez Canal,” was unfeasible, and that the Nubian people are persecuted in Egypt. The prosecution said that Elaimy’s articles “weakened the state and damaged national security.”

On the other hand, Fouad was prosecuted because “he suggested to the international public the illegitimacy of the Egyptian state’s institutions.” El-Elaimy, Fouad and Mo’nis were arrested in June 2019 in case 930 of 2019 known in media as “the Hope Alliance.” The case included the BDS activist, Rami Shaath, businessman and economist Omar Al-Shenity, and Islamic preacher, Khaled Abu Shady.

At this time, the Egyptian authorities said in official statements that the detainees had formed an organisation to overthrow the Egyptian state institutions, which was proved later to be false propaganda against the detainees.