Kuwait Times

Published Date: July 30, 2008

EL-ARISH: Dozens of women staged a protest in Egypt's north Sinai yesterday to protest the months-long detention without trial of their relatives over a string of bombings in the peninsula. The women gathered outside the governor's office in El-Arish, holding pictures of sons, fathers and husbands who were rounded up after deadly attacks that targeted the Red Sea resorts of Taba, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab between 2004 and 2006.

The men have been held without trial and their detention repeatedly renewed for 45 days at a time, some for as long as three years. "We want them to either be tried or released," one protester told AFP. A security official said 62 people are known to be detained in connection with the bombings.

The latest major attack to hit the Sinai peninsula was in April 2006, when several bombers struck the popular resort of Dahab, killing 20 people. After a seven-year lull, attacks returned to Egypt in 2004, when three bombs exploded in and around the Red Sea resort of Taba, killing at least 34 people. Around 70 were killed in July 2005 when multiple blasts struck Sinai's most popular resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. -AFP