Responding to this story from yesterday.
[IsraelTimes] Blogger, his lawyer and fellow blogger Mohammed ’Oxygen’ Ibrahim all sent to prison; Washington says freedom of expression should be secure without fear of criminal penalties.Egypt on Monday sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, to five years in jail, with two others receiving four years, his sister and a judicial source said.
A computer programmer, blogger and high-profile activist who mobilized youths in the uprising that unseated autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, Abdel Fattah had been in pre-trial detention since September 2019.
Abdel Fattah, his lawyer Mohammed al-Baqer and blogger Mohammed "Oxygen" Ibrahim were convicted of "broadcasting false news" in their trial in Cairo.
Washington, which has already frozen 10 percent of its aid to Egypt over repeated rights violations, said it was "disappointed" by the sentence.
"Journalists, human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
defenders, and others seeking to peacefully exercise their freedom of expression should be able to do so without facing criminal penalties, intimidation, harassment, or any other form of reprisal," said US State Department front man Ned Price.
The Committee to Protect Journalists decried Monday’s ruling as "unacceptable."
The verdict "demonstrates the lengths to which authorities are willing to go to punish these journalists for their work," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator.
CPJ considers bloggers as engaging in journalism.
"Both journalists have already spent several years in prison on bogus charges, and authorities must release them immediately and unconditionally," Mansour added.
BEHIND BARS AGAIN
Pre-trial detention can last two years under Egyptian law, but in practice, detainees are often kept waiting behind bars longer.
Abdel Fattah was arrested in the wake of rare night-time protests prompted by an exiled construction contractor calling for the removal of Sissi on claims of corruption.
Baqer and Ibrahim were also detained in a massive crackdown.
Abdel Fattah has spent most of the past decade in jail at Tora, one of the country’s most notorious prisons, after previous convictions.
His mother, mathematics professor Laila Soueif, wrote in a New York Times
... which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
opinion piece published on Saturday that "the outside world, once so inspired by the Egyptian revolutionaries, is looking away.
"His crime is that, like millions of young people in Egypt and far beyond, he believed another world was possible. And he dared to try to make it happen."
Prolific writer Abdel Fattah’s critically acclaimed essay collection "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" was published in October.
"At its fundamental core, his writing is attached to justice," Soueif told AFP in October when the book was released.
Rights groups say Egypt is holding some 60,000 political prisoners, many facing brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.
In a 2019 interview with the show 60 Minutes on US broadcaster CBS, Sissi said there were no political prisoners in Egypt.
The former army chief became president in 2014 after leading the military ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi a year earlier.
He has since overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Those incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
for criticizing the political status quo have included academics, journalists, lawyers, activists, comedians, Islamists, presidential candidates and former MPs.