Egypt detains award-winning human rights lawyer representing protestersBy MEE and agencies
Published date: 22 September 2019 21:52 UTC | Middle East Eye
►https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-detains-award-winning-human-rights-lawyer-representing-proteste
Egyptian authorities on Sunday detained an award-winning human rights lawyer after she attended judicial investigations into protesters arrested during recent demonstrations against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, her lawyer said.
Mahienour El-Massry “was arrested as soon as she left the State Security Prosecutor’s headquarters in Cairo, where she had attended the investigations as a lawyer for several of those arrested during the demonstrations”, Tarek al-Awadi said. (...)
Massry, a political activist and human rights defender, has been tried and jailed twice for taking part in demonstrations.
In December 2013, after the army’s overthrow of then president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests, she was arrested and imprisoned until September 2014 on charges of participating in a demonstration without a permit.
While in prison, Massry received the Ludovic Trarieux Award, an international prize given out annually to a lawyer for contributions to human rights.
In 2015, Massry was given another year-long sentence for taking part in a sit-in during Morsi’s rule.
Egypt effectively banned protests under a law passed following Morsi’s 2013 ouster.
Sisi was elected president the following year with 96.9 percent of the vote.