MECA DETAINEES RELEASED

UNCLAS CAIRO 003537 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE NSC STAFF FOR PASCUAL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KIRF PHUM PGOV EG SUBJECT: MECA DETAINEES RELEASED REF: A. CAIRO 3256 ¶B. CAIRO 3351 ¶C. CAIRO 3398 Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. 1.(U) On December 25, the Office of the Public Prosecutor ordered the release of three members of the Middle East Christians Association (MECA) held since their November 10 arrests for allegedly "fueling sectarianism" and "insulting Islam" (ref A and B). The three were released, without charges, late on the afternoon of December 26. Our understanding is that all three returned to their residences in Cairo and Alexandria. The three still could be charged criminally or face private lawsuits. ¶2. (SBU) Comment: The reasons for the release are not clear. Under Egypt's criminal code, a suspect may be held without charges for up to five consecutive fifteen-day periods. In this case, the third fifteen-day detention period had just expired, and a lawyer for one detainee told us that investigators in the prosecutor's office missed a deadline for requesting renewal of the detention. Another possible explanation is that the government believed it had delivered a sufficiently strong warning to the detainees and MECA, and there was no point in holding the three any longer, especially in light of the attention the case was attracting (ref C). Ricciardone