Two officers detained in April 2011 by the military for joining protests in Tahrir Square were released from prison and hospitalized on Saturday, according to a group set up to support their cause.
“Two armed forces officers, Major Mohamed Omar and First Lieutenant Mostafa Abd al-Majid, who were arrested for supporting the protestors in Tahrir Square in April 2011 and are known in the media as the 'April 8 Officers' were released on Saturday and taken to hospital for rehabilitation,” said the official Facebook page of April 8 Movement.
The movement added that 26 officers were arrested that April and in the months after for the same reason.
Twenty-one soldiers have been officially released and but are still not free and charges have not been dropped. They were ordered to go to hospital for psychological rehabilitation and are allowed to leave two days per week, according to the movement.
The remaining five in prison are Major Fouad al-Desouky, Ahmed Shouman, Tamer Badr, Captain Mohamed Wadie and Amr Metwaly.
The movement said that its members will continue to protest until all the soldiers are released, their charges are dropped and they are allowed to go back to work.
The movement said that 19 of the above-mentioned soldiers were released before the presidential elections and that the President Mohamed Morsy has not yet intervened on behalf of any of the soldiers. They thanked Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, chief of the armed forces, and called on Morsy to issue a general amnesty for all the soldiers so they can go back to work.
