Security authorities in the Governorate of North Sinai released 20 Bedouin detainees on Sunday, bringing the total number of detainees released by the government in recent weeks to 98.
Those released include political dissidents, Bedouin tribesmen suspected of smuggling goods into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels, and some of those detained following a series of bombings that struck the Sinai Peninsula between 2004 and 2006.
The decision to release the Bedouin detainees came in the wake of a meeting last month between Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and Bedouin tribal leaders.
At the meeting, el-Adly promised to review detainees’ files and release as many as possible, in keeping with a recent amendment to Egypt’s longstanding Emergency Law strictly limiting the law’s application to terrorism and drug-related offenses.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
