The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemns the prosecution and abuse of student leader Moaz Al-Sharqawi, which have continued for nearly seven years.

On June 24th, the Second Terrorism Circuit of the Criminal Court, headed by Judge Wagdi Abdel Moneim and convened at the Badr Courts Complex, issued sentences ranging from ten years to life imprisonment for 19 defendants, including EIPR client Moaz Al-Sharqawi.

This is the second ten-year sentence against Al-Sharqawi, who was also placed on the terrorist entities list and received a complementary sentence of police surveillance for five years after the completion of his prison sentence the decision issued  in Case No. 13330 of 2023 (Marg Felonies),  registered under No. 39 of 2023 (Supreme State Security Felonies). Meanwhile, his trial on similar charges in another case, No. 540 of 2023 (Supreme State Security), will begin on July 5th.

The verdict against Al-Sharqawi is not the first of its kind, and it seems it will not be the last. Over the past seven years, Al-Sharqawi has faced similar charges, such as joining and financing a terrorist group (the Muslim Brotherhood) in three different cases, without being confronted with objective incriminating evidence in any of them. He had previously been sentenced to ten years in Case No. 440 of 2018, which lacked minimum fair trial standards.

Al-Sharqawi was first arrested in 2018, interrogated and remained in pretrial detention until his release in 2020 before the Emergency State Security Court issued its unappealable verdict in 2021. He remained large at the time, as the verdict was not ratified.

On October 12th 2022, a security officer made preliminary investigations into the case in which Al-Sharqawi and others were implicated. The prosecution authorised their arrest and search. However, Al-Sharqawi was arrested seven months after the preliminary investigation was conducted, specifically on May 11th 2023, when a security force went to his home in the Mokattam neighbourhood and arrested him after warning his neighbours not to intervene. Subsequently, the security force took him to an unknown destination and his whereabouts remained unknown until he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on June 3rd 2024.

There obvious error that reveals a fundamental flaw in the process of law enforcement, and casts serious doubts on the integrity and seriousness of the entire process, was that was that following Al-Sharqawi’S second arrest in 2023 and illegal detention for more than twenty days; he was never interrogated in the case into which preliminary investigations were filed and a verdict was handed down yesterday. However, the Supreme State Security Prosecution interrogated him in connection with another case, No. 540/2023. On the basis of which he remained in custody until his detention was not renewed. However Al-Sharqawi continues to be detained - but in connection with the other case in which a court ruling was delivered yesterday (24 June 2025).

Al-Sharqawi and his lawyers were stunned by the order referring him to trial concerning the case in which yesterday’s verdict was issued  when he was never questioned about this case at all. The SSSP considered him a fugitive at the time, although he has been in remand custody by the Ministry of Interior since May 2023. Despite the seriousness of the charges against him, the prosecution only copied his statements in Case No. 540 of 2023 into the casefile of the new investigation.

EIPR’s lawyer explained to the court before it handed down the verdict that Al-Sharqawi had been subjected to compound violations following his arrest. According to the case papers, Al-Sharqawi was arrested on May 11th 2023. However, he appeared before the prosecution 22 days after he was completely isolated from the outside world, tortured, and denied access to his lawyer. The case file includes an indication that the officer in charge of the case requested permission to detain Al-Sharqawi for 14 days under Article 40 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, while the case papers did not contain any evidence that this permission was issued in the first place, which means that Al-Sharqawi’s detention and all subsequent procedures were invalid, which in itself is supposed to guarantee his acquittal.

In addition to the fact that Al-Sharqawi was illegally detained, denied access to a lawyer during his detention, and was not held in a legal detention facility; the court panel did not pay any heed to the EIPR lawyer’s argument that Article 40 was unconstitutional in the first place, allowing individuals to be detained for up to 28 days without interrogation, which represents a flagrant violation of Article 54 of the constitution affirming that defendants must be questioned within 24 hours of their arrest. The court did not also respond to the defence’s request to add the decision to detain Al-Sharqawi under Article 40 of the Anti-Terrorism Law to the papers of Case No. 540, to allow for a motion to suspend the case proceedings while the Constitutional Court rules on the unconstitutionality of the article.

The case papers did not contain any incriminating evidence other than the National Security Sector’s (State Security) preliminary investigation, which can only be considered the opinion of the officer who conducted it and cannot - according to previous decisions of the Court of Cassation - be considered even as basic evidence or preliminary proof of the accusations. Moreover, the investigation did not indicate that Al-Sharqawi had committed any crime in the first place, nor did it clarify his connection to any of the other defendants. Meanwhile, the court did not pay attention to the fact that the prosecution’s investigation was inadequate and violated the right of the defence to not interrogate Al-Sharqawi in the case in which yesterday’s verdict was issued.

What is even more surprising is that the court ignored EIPR lawyer’s argument that the charge levelled against Al-Sharqawiof joining a terrorist group (the Muslim Brotherhood) had previously been decided on. The lawyer explained that Al-Sharqawi should not be tried on charges he had previously been convicted of - in accordance with the most basic principle of preventing double jeopardy. In 2021, the Emergency Court sentenced Al-Sharqawi to ten years in prison after convicting him of that charge. A member of the judicial panel issuing that decision back in 2021 happened to the head of the circuit that issued yesterday’s verdict, a verdict that carried the same penalty on the same charge, something which the court should perhaps take into account when it begins the subsequent trial in July to decide - once again - on the same accusation; for the third time in Case No. 540 of 2023.

EIPR demands that the procedural errors and objective inaccuracies in the casefile be corrected, which would automatically necessitate Al-Sharqawi's acquittal before the Court of Appeal. EIPR is concerned that all these illegal procedures occurred when Counselor Hamada El-Sawy, the head of the circuit, was serving as the Public Prosecutor

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EIPR stresses that Al-Sharqawi’s current legal position requires a quick and fair review. The court panel concerned with hearing Al-Sharqawi’s third case should acquit him, as the charges against him had previously been ruled on, more than once