Egypt: Abolish the Emergency State Security Courts and End Miscarriages of Justice

Jan 24, 2023 | Advocacy, News

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) condemns the mass trial by the Emergency State Security Court (ESSC) in Case No. 1357 of 2019, known as the “Joker case”, of 103 defendants, including 29 defendants who were children at the time of their arrest, in which the Court handed down 82 guilty verdicts on 15 January 2023. Most of the defendants were arrested in the Suez Governorate in September 2019 in the context of protests against the deteriorating economic conditions; while many others – including four children, who had disseminated a video of themselves on social media, wearing “Vendetta masks” and calling for demonstrations — were arrested in October 2019. Another defendant, Muhammad Ali, a former Army contractor who had published calls to protest on social media from outside Egypt, remains at large.