They underwent legal proceedings before a military tribunal on the personal instructions of President Hosni Moubarak after having been acquitted by the competent civil jurisdiction. Their trial was filled with serious irregularities. The Working Group was seized by Alkarama and the Arab Commission for Human Rights on 27 August 2007. (See press release).

In their Opinion, the UN experts retained the following facts: the 26 men cited below were arrested on 14, 23 and 24 December 2006 and on 14, 16, and 17 January 2007 by members of the security forces (Amn Ad-dawla), acting with the support of special unites of the army. Their houses and offices were searched and personal computers, cell phones, books and personal documents were confiscated. No arrest or search warrants were presented and not reason was given to justify these arrests.

These 26 people were taken to Al-Mahkoum prison in Cairo where they were detained with 14 other people in a cell measuring 3 x 8 metres. They were not allowed to receive visits from their families or lawyers.

On 21 January 2007, the detainees were taken to Torah prison. The prosecutor of the Republic charged them with belonging to a banned organization and for having supplied weapons and military training to university students. He prolonged their detention three times.

Alkarama and the Arab Commission for Human Rights had also made a submission to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva regarding their particularly inhumane conditions of detention, and the almost total lack of medical care provided despite the deplorable physical state of health which most of them were in. (See press release).

On 29 January 2007, they were all brought before the Cairo (civilian) criminal court  which acquitted them and ordered their immediate release.

The security forces present at the hearing immediately arrested them after the announcement of the decision by the Court on 4 February, and President Hosni Moubarak personally ordered that this case be transferred to a military tribunal to be judged a second time.

The detainees were therefore transferred to the Haikstep Supreme Military Court without even knowing the charges against them because neither their families nor their lawyers had access to the criminal file.

The trial took place in absolute secret, and access by the media was very restrained. Independent international observers were refused access to the court. The defense lawyers were not informed of the date of the trial and decided to boycott the session as a sign of protest. The defendants  were charged by a jury of three military judges for terrorism, money laundering and for the possession of Muslim Brotherhood propaganda documents, the same facts for  which the criminal tribunal had acquitted them due to the total lack of elements establishing these facts.

During the hearing, the prosecutor even recognized not having received the bank report on the supposed money-laundering for which the defendants were charged, their accounts frozen and their companies closed. The trial was postponed numerous times and the judgment was final handed down on 15 April 2008:

1. Mohamed Khirat Saad EL-SHATER and Hassan Ezzudine MALEK were sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.
2. Ahmed Ashraf Mohamed Mostafa ABDOUL WARITH and Ahmad Mahmoud SHOUSHA were sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
3. Ayman Abd El-Ghani HASSANIN, Esam Abdul Mohsen AFIFI, Essam Abdul Halim HASHISH, Farid Aly GALBT, Fathy Mohamed BAGHDADY, Mamdouh Ahmed AL-HUSSEINI, Medhat Ahmad EL-HADDAD , Mohamed Ali BISHR, Mostafa SALEM and Murad Salah EL-DESOUKY were sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.

 The other accused were acquitted - this being Mssrs. Khaled Abdelkader OWDA, Ahmad Ahmad NAHHAS, Ahmed Azzedin EL-GHOUL, Amir Mohamed Bassam AL-NAGGAR, Gamal Mahmoud SHAABAN, Yasser Mohamed ALI, Mahmoud Abdul Latif ABDUL GAWAD, Mahmoud Morsi KOURA, Mohamed Mahmoud HAFEZ, Mohamed Mehany HASSAN, Mohammed Ali BALIGH, Osama Abdul Muhsin SHIRBY.

The Egyptian government justified these arrests and condemnations by evoking a police report which appears to establish that these leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite being banned, held meetings amongst students in order to provoke chaos by calling for sit-ins and protests as well as the destruction of public and private property.

In this perspective, and still according to the police report, paramilitary groups would appear to have been created amongst these students under the direction of the identified persons. Upon receipt of the said report, the prosecutor of the Republic would appear to have then delivered an arrest warrant against the leaders of the banned organization and the students of Al-Azhar who were organized into a committee.

But, as the Working Group found, the Cairo criminal court had on 29 January 2007 acquitted the persons arrested, considering that no charges could be brought against them. As for the students, who were also all arrested and underwent legal proceedings in the context of this same case, as the case was dropped, no charges were retained against any of them.

For the Working Group then, the fact that the President of the Republic, acting as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, ordered the detainees be judged by the Supreme Military Tribunal of Heikstep constitutes a violation of the "non bis in idem" principle, which forbids the same person being judged twice for the same facts, a principle set out in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Egypt.

The Working Group also confirms in this case its position the principle relating to the legal proceedings and the translations of civilians before an incompetent military jurisdiction which does not respect the conditions of independence and impartiality.

The UN experts therefore consider that the privation of freedom of these persons is arbitrary and contrary to articles 9 (no one may be arbitrarily arrested, detained or exiled), 10 (the right for everyone in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal), and 11 (presumption of innocence) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also violates articles 9 (right to appeal) and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In consequence, the Working Group asks the Egyptian government to take the necessary measures to remedy the detainees' situation and to render it in conformity to the norms and principles declared in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.