Councilor Mohammed Helmi Qandil, Prosecutor-General of Mid-Cairo, renewed yesterday remanding 21 defendants in 6 April strike case for 15 days.

The general prosecution will conduct investigations for the accusations of inciting citizens to stop doing their jobs and rallying with the purpose of assaulting personal freedom, preventing the state institutions from performing assigned duties and disrupting traffic, which led to harming the public interest.

The list of suspects included Dr. Magdy Qarqar, secretary-general of frozen Labor Party, and some members of Al Ghad, Labor parties, as well as Kifaya Movement.

Corridors of South Cairo Court were crowded. Security forces put steel partitions to stop families and protestors, and contain them on the staircase in between the corridors.

The guards imposed a security cordon on all outlets leading to the Prosecution to prevent entry of families and media.

Altercations occurred among a number of families and journalists, who were not admitted in to follow up the session of custody renewal. The mother of one of the defendants fell on the ground after losing consciousness amid the crowd and demonstration of families.

Defendants entered the court amid tight security guard, and chanted; "Long live Egypt" while ascending up to the third floor.

Five attorneys withdrew from the session and indicated in the investigations their objection to interrogate defendants while hand-cuffed.

Ihab al-Kholi said; "We withdrew as this situation did not take the legal and human rules into consideration, while investigation room had so many security personnel".

Sameh Attiya, attorney of defendants, asked for the acquittal of defendants with any guarantee to the prosecution. He denied any link of the defendants to the incidents, and described the investigations of the state security as non serious.

A number of defendants said that they will stage a hunger strike, while two of them already did that 48 hours ago, in protest to the ill treatment inside prison.

One of the defendants was hurt in his hands due to hand cuffs, and requested in vain for medical examination.

Meanwhile, a number of defendants' mothers intended to stage an open strike in attorneys syndicate, until the release of their sons.

They held the security forces responsible for any health injuries that occur to them, especially as some of them have diabetes and liver problems