Thursday, February 05, 2009
Elder of ZiyonMina Adel Shawky and Essam Kedees Nassif from Dayrout, in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut, were arrested Sunday after being spotted distributing Bibles to pedestrians [at the Cairo International Book Fair.]The men are out of custody but may still face charges.The men were held under investigation for charges of preaching, an offense that does not explicitly exist in the Egyptian legal code. Yet, the report that was filed against them accused them of defaming Islam.
“Preaching is legally not a crime, so the police had to accuse them of something,” Naguib Gobrael, head of the Egyptian Union for Humans Rights told Daily News Egypt.
Shawky and Nassif were denied access to an attorney and the law center was unable to reach them during their detention, a procedure followed by police during closed investigations.
