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2021-12-21 Africa North

Court hands final prison sentences to Egyptian activists Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Oxygen, lawyer Baqer

Final for this case. The miscreants are in process or serving sentences for other cases even as this one finishes.

[AlAhram] The Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court sentenced renowned Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah on Monday for five years in prison over joining a terrorist group and spreading fake news.

Activist Mohammed Ibrahim (aka Mohammed Oxygen) and Lawyer Mohammed El-Baqer, co-defendants in the case 1228/2021, were handed a four-year-imprisonment sentence.

The rulings against the three defendants are issued by a state security court, and thus are final and cannot be appealed.

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The three defendants had been held in pretrial detention since September 2019. In October, the Egyptian prosecution referred them to the Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court.

The Public Prosecution had charged them with spreading fake news and statements, misusing social media, and joining an illegal group that seeks to suspend the constitution and laws, and prevent state institutions from carrying out their duties.

In November, Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a ruling to place Abdel-Fattah, El-Baqer, and 26 others on the country’s terrorism list for a five-year period in case 1781/2019.

In a document, the State Security Prosecution said the defendants in the case 1781/2019 are also accused in other cases of various terror-related crimes, including belonging to an outlawed group, inciting violence against the state, calling for the suspension of the constitution, attempting to overthrow the regime, threatening national security, and spreading chaos.

Earlier this month, the German government urged Egypt to ensure a fair trial for the defendants and called for their release, saying "the upcoming pronouncement of a judgment on 20 December 2021 in the trial of the lawyer Mohammed El-Baqer will show where the human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
situation in Egypt is heading."

Egypt rebuked the German government on Saturday, calling the statement "a blatant and unjustified interference in the internal affairs of Egypt" and "an infringement upon a judicial path without objective evidence or proof."

In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry also accused the German government of "double standards" since it calls on the one hand for the respect of the rule of law while calling on the Egyptian government to intervene and influence the rulings of the country’s independent judiciary.

"It is better for the German government to heed its own internal challenges than to impose its guardianship on others," the foreign ministry added.

An Nahar adds:

Alaa Abdel-Fattah was first sentenced in 2014 on charges of taking part in an unauthorized protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer. He was released in 2019 after serving a five-year term but was rearrested again later that year, in a crackdown that followed anti-government protests.

At the time, he and many others were accused of disseminating false news, misuse of social media and joining a terrorist group — a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities declared a terrorist organization in 2013.

Along with Abdel-Fattah, the Emergency State Security Court in Cairo on Monday also sentenced Abdel-Fattah's former lawyer, Mohammed el-Baker, and fellow activist Mohamed Ibrahim, also known as Mohamed Oxygen, to four years each, on the same charges. The three were tried together.

They also separately face charges of misusing social medial and joining the Brotherhood, Eid said. It's unclear when hearings in that case will begin.

Ibrahim's defense lawyer, Gamal Eid, said their verdicts cannot be appealed since they were tried under Egypt's emergency laws, imposed in 2017.

The three were held in detention for more than two years, until their trial started in October. Their lawyers have complained the court did not allow them to review case documents or meet with the defendants to discuss their defense strategies, Eid said.

Egypt's government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists but also secular activists who were involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled the country's longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel-Fattah rose to prominence following the 2011 uprising; he was detained several times for lobbying for civil rights on social media and in public. An influential blogger, he hails from a family of political activists, lawyers and writers. His late father was one of Egypt's most tireless rights lawyers and his two sisters are also political activists. His aunt is award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.

Earlier this year, Abdel-Fattah's family and his lawyers had accused prison authorities in Cairo's Tora prison complex of torturing him and denying him basic legal rights. They also called for prosecutors to investigate the claims.

One of his sisters, Mona Seif, confirmed Monday's verdict, as did el-Baker's wife.

El-Baker, who was representing Abdel-Fattah at the time, was arrested when he attended the activist's questioning by prosecutors in September 2019.

Egypt imposed a state of emergency in April 2017, following deadly church bombings and attacks on Coptic Christians that killed more than 100 people and wounded scores. It allowed for arrests without warrants, swift prosecution of suspects and the establishment of special courts.

The state of emergency has since been extended several times. However, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced in October, when the last extension expired, that his government will no longer renew it.

Posted by trailing wife 2021-12-21 00:00|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top
File under: Muslim Brotherhood