Women Protection Behind Bars

During the past three months, Mwatana and the recruited lawyer still follow up the case. In August 2023,the detained victim's case was followed up at the Prosecution Office after she considered abandoning the appeal for pardon. The authorities rejected the pardon issue. On August 16, the appeal was confirmed and recruited lawyer filed the petition. The file was transferred to the Western Prosecution for review, and returned to the Appeals Prosecution on August 26 for filing to the Supreme Court. In September 2023, the case release request was met with the Ministry of Human Rights, where the minister demanded a pardon and her release. However, the Prosecutor of West prosecution refused to release her. The minister also requested that the appeal in the Supreme Court be stopped. The Appeals Prosecution Office was informed that the file was still under review. The prosecution was informed that the file would be filed within the following week. The victim was instructed to submit a memorandum requesting a pardon and court rulings. The rulings and memorandum requesting her release were submitted to the Presidential Office on end of September. In October 2023, the Supreme Court received an appeal file from the appeal division, which was completed on September. The file will be submitted to the competent department for consideration and a ruling. The recruited Lawyer and Mwatana have followed up on the appeal petition, and the Supreme Court has informed that the ruling will be decided within six months. A memorandum requesting a pardon was submitted in the name of the detained , but the request was rejected due to the heinousness of the crime.

Mwatana and the recruited lawyer, still follow up the case; the updates of this case in the three months are as follows: In March, Mwatana’s legal support and the lawyer made three field visits to the Court of Appeal to obtain a copy of the written judgment. The Lawyer drafted the appeal petition. The lawyer also visited the Central Prison to request the release of Intisar Al-Hamadi due to her poor psychological condition. This request was made after confirming the visit of the Public Prosecutor to the Central Prison before Ramadan. During Ramadan, the courts were closed, so the detainee was contacted by phone to check on her condition in the central prison. In May, Mwatana's field lawyer followed up on the issuance of the verdict in the Court of Appeal. The judges of the division were asked to sign and seal the verdict after extracting it. The head of the division reviewed the verdict for over two weeks and made some amendments to it before signing and sealing it. On June 13th, Mwatana was informed by the Secretariat of the Appeal Court that the case file had been handed over to the Judicial Affairs in the Court. After further follow-up, Mwatana was informed that the verdict had been sent with the full case file to the West Prosecution Office. The West Public Prosecution Office confirmed the receipt of the file on the same day and stated that the verdict would be handed over to the recruited lawyer in the case. However, the victim with lawyer study other options the waive the appeal record with the Supreme Court and instead submit a pardon request to the Public Prosecutor