CAIRO – 24 May 2018: Activist Wael Abbas was arrested early Wednesday by forces that belong to Cairo Investigations Department, legal sources told Youm7 news website.
The sources revealed that his charges include “opposing and inciting against the Egyptian state.” However, no statement from the prosecution has been released to confirm his indictment or even his detention.
Abbas, 43, posted “I am being arrested” in Arabic on his verified Facebook profile, which has disappeared from the platform since. Social media profiles of activists are usually deleted shortly after their arrest in hopes their posts would not incriminate them.
Wael Abbas saying he is being arrested/ Facebook
His activism began in the early 2000s with videos on police brutality and torture. Notably, a video he shared in 2006 of a microbus driver, Emad el-Kebir, being tortured at a police station, led to a rare imprisonment of a police officer, Captain Islam Nabih.
Abbas was a fierce opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in 2012 and 2013, but was also against the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi.
Socialist activist Haitham Mohamadein was arrested May 18, and legal sources anticipated the charge of belonging to a terrorist group. On May 8, a satirical vlogger was detained for 15 days pending investigations into belonging to an illegal group and spreading false news.
Two weeks ago, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi pardoned 330 youths, many of whom are low-profile activists or were arrested under Egypt’s strict protest law. Sisi has pardoned hundreds others during his term.
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