Khaled Ali, member of the defense team of political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 other defendants in the case known as the “Shura Council events,” claims that Abdel Fattah, whom the media has accused of being a ‘traitor’, has defeated President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in an Internet poll in 2014.
“Those defendants are being tried by a law that was passed during the British occupation of Egypt to fight the honorable Egyptian patriots that defended their country,” Ali said.
The defendants are charged with assaulting a police officer, demonstrating without permit in front of the Shura Council, blocking the road, destroying public property, threatening public peace and attacking citizens.
Many rights groups and international observants have decried Abdel Fattah's arrest as politically motivated. He and a group of defendants were arrested in front of the Shura Council for protesting without prior permission from the Interior Ministry.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
