Egyptian authorities release investment banker after four year detention

Egyptian authorities have released an investment banker who had been in pretrial detention for over four years for allegedly trying to “overthrow the state”, officials said Monday 7 August 2023.

“Including Omar el-Shenety… 33 have been released from pretrial detention today,” lawyer Tarek al-Awady, a member of the presidential pardon committee, wrote on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X.

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OTHER EGYPTIAN NATIONALS WHO WERE ARRESTED

The list also included lawyer Youssef Mansour and content creator Ahmed Hassanein. Shenety, an economist and founder of investment firm Multiples Group, was arrested in June 2019 along with a number of opposition figures who were preparing to run for the “Hope Coalition” in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Journalists Hossam Moniss and Hisham Fuad, as well as former lawmaker Zyad el-Elaimy, were among the detainees from that case who had been released last year.

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They were accused of supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group and funding a plot to “overthrow the state and its institutions”.

According to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, Shenety is a “distinguished economic researcher and financial consultant” who has invested in various businesses “including Alef Bookstores”, which was compelled to shut down in 2019 after allegations of links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Monday’s announcement is the latest in a series of high-profile releases, including researcher Patrick Zaki and rights lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer, who received presidential pardons last month.

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1000 POLITICAL PRISONERS RELEASED IN EGYPT

Since April last year, authorities have released 1,000 political prisoners amid much fanfare but detained almost 3,000 more, according to Egyptian rights monitors.

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Cairo has come under frequent criticism for its human rights record, with tens of thousands of political prisoners — including journalists, lawyers, trade unionists and artists — behind bars, according to rights groups.

The government launched a “national dialogue” this year, hoping to bring in an opposition that has been decimated throughout a decade of repression since Sisi deposed his predecessor, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, after popular protests.