Egypt is using jail without trial as a way of stifling dissent, say critics
Lawyers say unlimited 'preventive detention' is being used as punishment to crush opposition
In his white prison uniform, Sherif Farag was forced to present his thesis behind bars, where he spent months without trial, a procedure Egypt's government is accused of using to silence its opponents.
Farag, a lecturer's assistant at Alexandria University, had been accused of inciting violence that led to the deaths of 34 people, and of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The fate of detainees like him has raised concerns about human rights abuses in Egypt, an issue US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had "frank" talks about in Cairo at the weekend.
Scores have been arrested as part of a crackdown since July 2013, when the army deposed Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohammed Mursi.
For Farag, preventive detention has been used as a form of "punishment" since law amendments in September 2013 allowed the authorities to extend custody indefinitely.
Prosecutors alleged Farag took part in clashes in August 2013 between security forces and Islamist protesters outraged by a crackdown on Mursi supporters that killed hundreds.
"The only connection I had with these events was watching them on television," Farag said. "The state turned me into a criminal and murderer on paper, without any evidence."
He was cleared on July 29.
The crackdown has left at least 1,400 people dead and more than 15,000 arrested, many of them for breaking another new law prohibiting all but police-sanctioned demonstrations.
Among them are secular activists who led the 2011 popular uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Lawyers say the procedure used against Farag has been repeated in many cases.
"The previous version of the law restricted preventive detention to a maximum of six months, after which a suspect was either released or referred to trial," said rights lawyer Gamal Eid.
But two months after Mursi fell from power, then interim president Adly Mansour amended the law to authorise unlimited preventive detention.
"Preventive detention has been turned into a punishment in itself against the opposition," said Ramy Said, a rights researcher who is also Farag's lawyer.
Prosecutors had alternatives, like the imposition of travel bans, but they refrain from using them in order to "crush the opposition," he added.
