Egyptian activists campaign for release of street performers

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Egyptian activists took to social media on Thursday to demand the release of five detained members of a satirical street performance group whose selfie-style video clips mocked President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The activists posted pictures on Facebook of themselves holding mobile phones in front of their faces with the caption: "Does a mobile phone camera rattle you?"

Police on Monday arrested four members of the group Awlad Shawarea, or "Street Children”.

 A fifth member was arrested over the weekend and remains in custody after a court ordered his release on Monday.

The performers face several charges, including inciting terror attacks and street protests, attempting to overthrow the government as well as insulting state institutions, according to their lawyer, Mahmoud Othman.


Othman told AP on Thursday that the five were being held at a police station in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. "I last saw them yesterday and they are in good condition," he said. "The prosecution, regrettably, does not see their clips as creative work protected by the constitution."

The five are Ezzedeen Khaled, Mohammed Adel, Mohammed Dessouki, Mohammed Yahya and Mohammed Gabr. Othman said their ages range between 19 and 25. A sixth member of the group, Mohammed Zein, has not been detained, he added.

Street Children is part of a new, street-based art, music and graffiti movement born out of Egypt's 2011 uprising and fueled by liberal youths opposed to the rule of either Islamists or the military. Authorities in recent months have sought to clamp down on the movement, closing a popular arts center in downtown Cairo and cancelling some street art festivals.

The move against Street Children underlined the government's diminishing tolerance for dissent and signaled that its next target could be social media networks, one of the last remaining platforms for young, pro-democracy activists and artists to air their views and work.

Recent clips by the group were entitled "El-Sissi, my president, made things worse," and "Leave" - a chant that was popular during the 2011 uprising that forced autocrat Hosni Mubarak to step down. Other clips mocked the president's habit of ending speeches with "Long live Egypt!" and his recent reference to advice by his late mother "never to covet what belongs to others."