The Arab Network for Human Rights Information denounced the referral of the YouTube blogger Mohamed Oxygen to trial before the State Security Court for Emergency, which is an exceptional court that lacks the basic standards of fair trials, according to the network.

ANHRI added in a statement that the referral came after Oxygen finished two years in jail, which is the maximum pretrial detention, and said that he must be released and not referred to an exceptional court. The statement pointed out that the intentional humiliation of Oxygen persisted after his failed suicide attempt in February, as he was denied family visits and meetings with his lawyers. Moreover, the attorney general refused to investigate his lawyers’ complaint against the prison administration about the illegal prevention of visits.

Oxygen was arrested from inside Basatin Police Station in October 2019, even though he was compliant with the parole’s condition in a previous case. Although the court ordered him to be released in November 2020, he was inserted in a new case to keep him in detention.

ANHRI explained that the referral of Oxygen as well as other political prisoners reveals the new method followed by the Supreme State Security Prosecution in addressing the cases of detainees who finished the maximum pretrial detention, that is to refer them to the exceptional court, the State Security Court for Emergency, which is known of its political bias and that its rulings cannot be appealed except by Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi himself.