On Saturday, May 7, the State Security Prosecution decided to release the defendants known as "Thorafaa El Ghalaba" (the funny poor) in State Security Case 440 of 2022, when it considered the renewal of their detention order.

The events began last March, when three young men from Assiut Governorate published a satirical video that included a simulation of a video that appeared several years ago, imitating the tune of a famous love song, replacing its lyrics with words that mock high prices. When the video went viral among users of the Tik Tok application, the group was summoned to the State Security headquarters in Assiut.

On March 31, 2022, when the three young men voluntarily went to the State Security headquarters, they were detained. They were not brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo until April 18th and 19th. At that time, the Public Prosecution charged them with “joining a terrorist group” and “spreading false news.”

During the interrogations, the defendants denied all accusations against them and admitted that they were filming these videos for the purpose of artistic fame and financial gain through the Tik Tok application.

The EIPR lawyer attended with the three defendants and demanded their release due to the absence of justifications for pretrial detention, and the implementation of one of the precautionary measures stipulated in Article 201 of the Code of Criminal Procedure instead of imprisonment. He also argued that their arrest was invalid due to the lack of prior permission from the Public Prosecution. TIn addition, the EIPR lawyer argued that the investigation was invalid as it was conducted more than 24 hours after the arrest of the accused.