CAIRO: The first court session of freelance photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, has been scheduled for Dec. 12, according to Journalists Against Torture.
More than 700 defendants are included in the case, accused of rioting during the dispersal of the Rabaa sit-in in August 2013. Shawkan was covering the dispersal when he was arrested, and has only recently been charged with murder, attempted murder, assaulting security forces and possessing weapons.
Shawkan has been jailed for over two years; his ongoing incarceration is considered unlawful by several lawyers and human rights defendants as the maximum pretrial detention in Egyptian is two years.
His defense team will file complaints pleas to release him, lawyer at the Association for Freedom of Though and Expression Ahmed Abdel Nabi told Journalists Against Torture.
Abdel Nabi added that Shawkan’s lawyers have not been allowed to obtain the trial referral documents or copies of the case files.