A coalition of Egyptian politicians, human rights lawyers and the White Knights supporters’ association appealed Saturday to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the prosecutor-general and the interior minister to release Sayed Ali Fahim El-Azab, known as Sayed Mushagheb, as a court convened to consider renewing his detention along with five others.
Mushagheb, the leader of the Zamalek ultras group White Knights, was rearrested within hours of returning home to the Bulaq El-Dakrour neighborhood in mid-April, roughly ten days after the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered his release following more than 11 years in prison.
His rearrest came after a group of young people gathered outside his home to celebrate his release. He now faces charges of “unlawful assembly, obstruction of public roads, disturbing citizens, and possession of fireworks.”
In a joint statement issued Saturday evening, a group of politicians and rights figures called on El-Sisi, Prosecutor-General Mohamed Shawky and Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik to give Mushagheb “a real chance at life and freedom” after the years he had spent behind bars.
The statement was signed by former presidential candidate and Karama Party founder Hamdeen Sabahy, human rights lawyers Khaled Ali and Tarek Elawady, Egyptian Social Democratic Party president Farid Zahran, and former labor minister Kamal Abu Eita.
The signatories described the scenes outside Mushagheb’s home on the day of his release as a spontaneous outpouring of joy from his family, friends, and neighbors after more than a decade of absence, saying the celebration was the product of natural human emotions—happiness and longing—after a long period of imprisonment.
The statement noted that Mushagheb’s mother had endured years of painful separation and continued to hope to see her son living a stable life among his family, and called for the human and social dimensions of the case to be taken into account, and for the spirit of the law—which balances justice with compassion—to be applied.
Mushagheb’s mother had earlier this month written directly to President El-Sisi, describing her son’s rearrest as “a shock the family has not absorbed to this day.” She said the reception that filled the neighborhood had been spontaneous, and that her son had been caught off guard by the celebration and had not sought it out—asking those present to leave on more than one occasion.
She said he had been focused, in the hours after his release, on trying to make up for years of absence from his family and the suffering that had accompanied it, particularly following his father’s death during his imprisonment. She urged the president to intervene, arguing that the response to the spontaneous celebration had been disproportionate, and that her son had only wished to reclaim his life with his family after years of deprivation.
The White Knights association issued its own statement Saturday, timed to coincide with Mushagheb’s 38th birthday and the detention renewal hearing, saying that what he had endured over the years had gone beyond punishment to become “the draining of a human life.”
The association said Mushagheb had spent years inside Zamalek’s stands defending his club and its supporters before spending more than a decade behind bars, and expressed hope that his ordeal would end and that he would be able to reclaim his life among his family and friends.
