On Wednesday, Medhat al-Zahid, head of the Socialist People’s Alliance Party, one of the Civil Democratic Movement parties, revealed that the movement affirmed during the second session of the National Dialogue Board of Trustees its adherence to the terms it announced in the May 8 statement, foremost of which was the need for the government to release a large number of political prisoners. Al-Zahed had criticized the Egyptian government for failing on its promises to release prisoners of conscience.

Members of the Civil Democratic Movement also expressed their disappointment at the authorities’ hesitation to release prisoners of conscience as a guarantee of the seriousness of the dialogue between the government and the opposition, stressing that the movement will discuss in an upcoming meeting its final position on participating in the discussion. The Civil Democratic Movement’s founding member, Mustafa Kamel al-Sayed, said that they had not fulfilled the promises to release prisoners of conscience had not fulfilled the promises to release prisoners of conscience.

Another movement leader said there is a state of anger at the government’s slowness in releasing political prisoners, stressing that without releasing prisoners of conscience, there is no apparent justification for aligning with the authority because its approach to suppressing freedoms has not changed.