The Abdeen Criminal Court adjourned the trial of Aya Hegazy and seven others to February 13, 2016, on the basis that the defendants failed to show up in court. Hegazy and the other defendants in the case arrived late to the courtroom, after the judge had reviewed the case and issued a decision to adjourn. The judge fined the Tora Prison officer LE2,000 for failing to transfer the defendants from prison to the courthouse on time.
Egyptian-American Hegazy was arrested in May 2014 after being accused of running an association that allegedly recruits children and incites them to protest against the regime.
Hegazy and her family have vehemently denied the charges leveled against them.
The Belady Foundation, the association Hegazy ran with her husband, was launched in September 2013 and held public campaigns on sanitation, combating sexual harassment and rehabilitation for street children, according to their Facebook page, which also has pictures of the children’s activities.
The defendants in the case, however, have been accused of holding street children against their will, as per a complaint submitted to the police station, among other charges. The National Security Agency accused them of using the children in Muslim Brotherhood marches and paying them to take part in the April 24 protests near the Ettehadiya Palace, held to demand the release of imprisoned members of the April 6 Youth Movement.
The defendants in the case include Hegazy, her husband Mohamed Hassanein, Sherif Talaat, Amira Farag, Ibrahim Abd Rabbo, Karim Magdy, Mohamed al-Sayed and Zeinab Abdel Moaty. They have been held in detention since their arrest in May.
Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Aya Hegazy’s trial was before the South Cairo Criminal Court. It has been amended to reflect that the trial is being heard by the Abdeen Criminal Court.