Abdel Rahman Mohamed - Cairo

An Egyptian court refused to appeal the State Security Prosecution, and upheld the decision to release journalist Aya Alaa with precautionary measures, while the prosecution itself decided to renew her husband, journalist Hassan al-Qabbani, 15 days pending an investigation into a case in which he was accused of spreading false news.

According to human rights sources, one of the departments of the Cairo Criminal Court refused to appeal the prosecution and supported the decision of another department to release Aya Alaa with precautionary measures.

Aya Alaa was arrested on June 17, and she disappeared 12 days after which she appeared in the State Security Prosecution on the 29th of the same month, pending a case in which she was accused of participating in a terrorist group and spreading false news.

And human rights sources reported that the Supreme State Security Prosecutor renewed the imprisonment of journalist Hassan al-Qabbani for 15 days pending the investigation of the 1480 case on Monday, for publishing false news.

Last September, Egyptian security forces re-arrested al-Qabbani while he was attending a session to renew precautionary measures, forcing him to disappear for nearly 70 days, before appearing in the State Security Prosecution.

He was arrested in January 2015, before being released with precautionary measures in November 2017.

The director of the Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights, the lawyer Khalaf Bayoumi, believes that the court's refusal to appeal the National Security Prosecution expresses a reality, namely, that the decision to arrest Ayat Ala from the beginning was completely unjustified.

Bayoumi pointed out in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the case in which the journalist Aya Alaa was accused has found nothing new since her arrest, valuing at the same time an appraisal of the decision to release the court of appeal.

However, he considered maintaining the precautionary measures as an unjustified punishment, which would result in unusual fatigue, describing the decision as "unpleasant behavior" that many circles insist on.