A Cairo court has renewed the detention of labour leader Shady Mohamed and five others for a further 45 days, extending their pretrial imprisonment to two years in what has become known as the “Palestine banner” case.
The Second Terrorism Circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court, sitting at the Badr Security Complex, issued the decision on Tuesday. The six defendants are being held in Case 1644 of 2024 by the State Security Prosecution, after security forces arrested them in Alexandria in late April 2024. The charges stem from their hanging of a banner on a bridge in solidarity with Palestine.
The decision marks two years in pretrial detention for the group. Security forces first arrested five of the defendants from their homes in Alexandria on April 28, 2024, followed by Mohamed’s arrest outside his home the next day. By the end of that month, all six had been presented to the State Security Prosecution. The investigations at the time focused on their hanging of a banner on a bridge in Alexandria to express solidarity with Palestine.
Lawyer Islam Salama, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said Mohamed and fellow defendant Youssef Yasser Farouk appeared via videolink from Borg El Arab Prison, while the others joined from 10th of Ramadan Prison. He told Al Manassa that the defense was denied communication with the detainees and argued for their release, citing a lack of evidence and stressing that the banner had not disrupted public order.
Salama added that he demanded the release of the defendants, citing a lack of evidence for the charges against them that would justify nearly two years of detention. He argued that hanging the banner did not result in any breach of public order or traffic disruption, and that their actions were merely an act of solidarity with Gaza.
On Monday, Salwa Rashid, Mohamed’s wife, posted a photo of her husband on her personal Facebook page with a brief caption: “Tomorrow is the latest detention renewal hearing in two continuous years of a prison nightmare—a nightmare I remember every detail of from the beginning, but unfortunately, I do not know when it will end.”
Rashid previously told Al Manassa that the family had received repeated promises of his release since the early months of his detention until last October, which never materialized. She noted that the referral of some cases to trial caused them frustration, but they continue to demand the release of their relatives as they had committed no crime. She criticized what she described as the inconsistency between the official public stance supporting the Palestinian cause and the continued detention of those showing solidarity with it.
On Oct. 6, the Public Prosecution released 38 defendants pending investigations by the State Security Prosecution, including defendants in cases related to “supporting Palestine.”
Additionally, on Oct. 13, the State Security Prosecution released three activists from the Egyptian Sumud Flotilla to Break the Siege on Gaza on bail of 1,000 pounds (about $19) in Case 7478 of 2025, State Security, two weeks after their arrest following a solidarity protest with Gaza in front of the campaign’s main headquarters in Dokki.
The Committee to Defend Prisoners of Conscience, in a memorandum submitted Tuesday to the prosecutor general, demanded the release of all prisoners of conscience.
The committee said in a statement that a delegation of public figures, party heads, and lawyers from the committee met with the First Assistant Prosecutor General at Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawky’s office and submitted a new memorandum to end the suffering of those detained in political cases.
Shady Mohamed began a total hunger strike on Jan. 29, 2025, protesting his “transfer” from 10th of Ramadan 6 Prison to Borg El Arab Prison, and the confiscation of his belongings, before ending the strike more than four weeks later after his treatment improved following an outpouring of solidarity.
Shady Mohamed was a leader in the independent union of workers at Linen Group for furnishings and textiles in the Amreya free zone, before he was arbitrarily dismissed from the company in 2019 in connection with his participation in workers’ protests for improved wages.
He was previously arrested on Oct. 3, 2022, from inside a company bus at the textiles firm, and was brought before the Dekheila Prosecution in Alexandria, which ordered his pretrial detention in Case 10233 of 2022 on charges of “joining a terrorist group, and publishing false news.” He was held at Borg El Arab Prison before the public prosecutor for West Alexandria ordered his release on Oct. 24, 2022.
