The families of prisoners of conscience in Egypt are clinging to the hope that their sons, who are being held in connection with cases, will be released with the implementation of the Criminal Procedures Law on October 1st.
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The new law stipulates that pretrial detention is a temporary precautionary measure for investigation, not a punishment. It sets the maximum period of pretrial detention at 18 months except in crimes punishable by death or life imprisonment, where the Court of Appeals or the Court of Cassation may extend the detention.
It expanded the adoption of alternative measures to pretrial detention, including not leaving the residence or home, presenting the accused himself to the police station at specific times, prohibiting frequenting specific places, not leaving a specific geographical area except with the permission of the Public Prosecution, refraining from receiving or meeting specific persons or contacting them by any means, temporary prohibition from possessing or acquiring firearms and their ammunition, and using technical means to track the accused.
The new law stipulates that pretrial detention is a temporary precautionary measure for investigation, not a punishment. It sets the maximum period of pretrial detention at 18 months (one and a half years), except in crimes punishable by death or life imprisonment.
Under the title “Help Us,” the Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights published a leaked letter from detainees inside prisons, which was an appeal calling on free people in the world to pressure Egypt to release the detainees.
The letter spoke of referring more than 15,000 people held in pretrial detention to trial, with most of them having been held in pretrial detention for up to 8 years, knowing that the cases they were referred to did not contain any incidents, evidence, or exhibits. There was only an investigation report, copied exactly in all cases, and the charge was the same in all cases, which was “joining a banned group” without any evidence, and sometimes the charge of financing was added to it, also without any evidence other than the investigations of the National Security.
The detainees stated in their letter that “the trials are very farcical, and in every case you find more than 100 defendants, and sometimes the number reaches 200. The sessions are attended inside isolation cages in the hall, and we do not see a judge or a lawyer. The session lasts for less than an hour, and the defendants do not know what happens inside the session except for attending and leaving.”
The letter stressed that “the sentences are harsh and have no relation to the accusation, as happened in some of the cases that were decided.”
She stressed that “if the trial continues in this manner, it will take 10 years for the two circuits to finish trying more than 15,000 defendants, as the cases are postponed for three and four months, in an absurd scene of trial that we have not seen and that has not happened in history.”
She continued: “We have been in pretrial detention for more than 5 years, and many have reached 8 years of pretrial detention pending the case. We do not know how long this situation will continue, and the horizon is blocked. The detainees have no judges or law, but they are representatives and their sentences are known, even if they are delayed.”
The detainees stressed that “the hope lies in the application of the new Criminal Procedures Law, which set a maximum limit of two years for pretrial detention, and consequently the release of those detained who have exceeded the period of pretrial detention and trial from outside, so that people and their families can catch their breath, and their release should be a mandatory release by the force of the law. If the law is not applied, then dealing with the court becomes nonsense and a farce, and the right thing to do is for all parties, lawyers and defendants, to boycott this farce.”
She stressed that “if the detainees are not released next October, this means a slow execution of the people, and the regime will have revealed its intention to kill people in their detention, and the consequences will be very, very bad for the detainees, and this is something whose consequences are not praiseworthy.”
Meanwhile, the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession called for postponing the implementation of the law for another year, so that it would begin on October 1, 2027, instead of the first of next month, due to the difficulty of implementing it, and until all the executive procedures required are completed and the employees of the relevant ministries are trained.A dispute arose over the provisions of the law, particularly “the newly introduced provisions relating to travel ban orders, the expansion of the powers of the Public Prosecution, the rights of the defense, the guarantees of the accused, and remote trials,” according to the center, which noted “demands for amendment by civil society organizations, law professors, and United Nations committees and their special rapporteurs at the Human Rights
Council.”He considered that postponing the implementation of the law was appropriate for the proper administration of justice and to allow for the discussion of the points of contention that its critics believe violate the standards of a fair and equitable trial, and contradict the comments of the Human Rights Committee regarding Articles 7, 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, stressing the need to give special consideration to the issue of pretrial detention.
He pointed out that the postponement period until October 2027 is necessary to ensure the completion of the executive procedures required by the law, and to train the employees of the relevant ministries, while emphasizing the activation of guarantees related to alternatives to pretrial detention in accordance with the amendment to Law No. 145 of 2006.
In October 2025, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Egyptian authorities to “completely review” the law, expressing ongoing concern about allegations of “enforced disappearances and the continued practice of torture and ill-treatment.”
Last November, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued the new law, amid human rights objections, stipulating that it would be implemented starting from October 1, 2026. The presidency justified this at the time by saying, “So that those responsible for its implementation, including judges, members of the Public Prosecution, judicial officers, and lawyers, can become familiar with the new provisions, and to allow time for the courts to establish the telephone advertising centers stipulated in the law.”
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