An Egyptian court trying demonstrators for holding an unauthorized protest forged evidence at its latest hearing, a prominent Egyptian activist and the sister of one of the defendants said on Saturday.
Mona Seif, the sister of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, issued a statement on Facebook saying that a kitchen knife taken as evidence against another defendant in the proceedings had gone missing. She claims a completely different knife had appeared as evidence and accused the prosecution of fraud.
« Today, like magicians, the prosecution presented a new knife blade — brand new and different dimensions than what’s on official case files, and new evidence claiming it’s the original evidence of the case, » she wrote.
Abdel-Fattah, a prominent figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, was convicted in June for organizing an unauthorized demonstration in November 2013 and assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was granted a retrial in August and currently remains in custody.
The prosecution says Alaa and his co-defendants attacked a policeman but Seif says the defense has presented eyewitness accounts and phone records that place them elsewhere at the time of the alleged attack.
« No videos or evidence presented by prosecution showed Alaa or any of his co-defendants committing any violent acts, » she said. « The prosecution relies on the testimonies of witnesses, all of them are officers, their testimonies contradictory, none of them said they saw the mugging incident, » she added.
Abdel-Fattah is among dozens of activists convicted under a draconian law that bans protests without prior police approval. He and Seif come from a family of prominent activists. Their father, the late Ahmed Seif al-Islam, was a longtime rights lawyer who was repeatedly imprisoned.
Authorities have arrested thousands of people over the past year in a sweeping crackdown on dissent.
Associated Press