An Egyptian court extended the detention of newly liberated soccer fan leader Sayed Mushagheb for 45 days over a spontaneous homecoming celebration following his completion of an 11-year prison sentence.
The ruling on Monday by the Boulaq El-Dakrour Misdemeanor Court penalizes Mushagheb and five others facing misdemeanor charges of “unlawful assembly, disrupting traffic, and possessing flares.”
Defense lawyer Osama Al-Gohary told Al Manassa that avenues to appeal the detention renewal remain available, adding that the defense team is evaluating the legal mechanisms to secure the release of Mushagheb and his co-defendants.
A security force arrested Mushagheb and others in mid-April, just 10 days after a Supreme State Security Prosecution order ended his more than a decade of imprisonment. The state action targeted a neighborhood celebration that occurred immediately upon his arrival at his home in the Boulaq El-Dakrour area.
In a joint statement issued Saturday evening, a group of politicians and rights figures called on President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Prosecutor-General Mohamed Shawky and Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik to intervene. The signatories urged officials to grant Mushagheb a real chance at life and freedom after the extensive years he spent behind bars.
The White Knights fan group issued its own statement Saturday to coincide with Mushagheb’s 38th birthday and the detention renewal hearing. The group said that what he had endured over the years went beyond punishment to become “the draining of a human life.”
The association said Mushagheb had spent years on the terraces at Zamalek 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.
In previous statements to Al Manassa, Al-Gohary challenged the security findings underlying the accusations against Mushagheb and his co-defendants, arguing that the arrests were procedurally void because the suspects “were arrested from their homes and not from the street as the criminal investigation’s findings claim.”
Rebutting claims of a prior conspiracy to organize the event, Al-Gohary stressed that such an arrangement was logistically impossible. “It is completely impossible... no one knew when he would be released because he was held by National Security,” he stated.
The defense characterized the gathering as a spontaneous reaction to Mushagheb’s local popularity. Al-Gohary noted that neighbors simply headed to the house upon learning of the release, adding that it is impossible for someone inside a police station to coordinate a public assembly.
