As they were peacefully demonstrating along with hundred other people to protest against the new presidency's policies, the police charged them without warning, firing teargas and buckshots to disperse the crowd. Fearing an escalation of violence, the 15 men ran away from the main Boulevard and took refuge in a small shop, where they were all arrested without any legitimate reason.

Aged between 18 and 48, Messrs Tahir Hassanain Hussain Moussa, Saeed Abdalwahab Mahmoud Abdaljawad, Hajadj Joumaa Sanhabi Hassan, Mahmoud Aboubakr Ali Ahmed, Driss Hamdi Mohamed Khalaf, Anas Nabil Hussain Riyad, Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed Mohamed, Adil Jamal Shaaban, Mountassir Mahdi Mahdi Mohamed, Eid Shaabane Alsayed Abdalbari, Omar Saeed Alwani, Bilal Sayed Qurani, Mahmoud Abdalsatar Abdulaziz, Youssouf Eid Sayed Abdallah et Salah Moustapha Joumaa Ashour were presented to the Public Prosecutor who immediately charged them with "demonstrating without authorisation", "threat to public order" and "affiliation with an illegal group", charges usually held against political opponents under the restrictive 2013 law on protests. In addition, under the pretext that investigations are still ongoing, They're at risk of seeing their detention continuously renewed by the Public Prosecutor's office, as permitted under Egyptian criminal procedure law.

To Alkarama, their detention constitutes a clear case of arbitrary detention, in particular since the right to peaceful demonstration, and to express their opinions are guaranteed under articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Egypt is a party; as they could not have represented a 'threat to public order' in the shop where they took refuge; and as the pretext for renewing their detention is in violation of ICCPR, article 9. Moreover, the 15 individuals report having been subjected, not only to verbal and physical assaults during their arrest, but to torture and ill-treatment in their place of detention, in particular to electrocution.

Fearing that they be subjected to additional torture or ill-treatment, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to ask the Egyptian authorities to immediately release the aforementioned individuals. The Egyptian authorities should be reminded of their international obligations and put an end to the gross human rights violations ongoing in this country, including the systematic dispersion and often violent repression of peaceful demonstrations.

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