Egypt has sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, to five years in jail, with two others receiving four years.
A computer programmer, blogger and high-profile activist who mobilised youths in the uprising that unseated autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah had been in pre-trial detention since September 2019.
Abdel Fattah, his lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer and blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim were convicted of “broadcasting false news” in their trial in Cairo.
Taking to Twitter, Fattah’s sister Mona Seif said Alaa was sentenced to five years, Baqer four years and Mohamed Oxygen four years, adding that the judge was too cowardly to even inform them.
A judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the verdict and sentencing to Newsmen.
Rulings in the court cannot be appealed. They require final approval by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Washington, which has already frozen 10 percent of its aid to Egypt over repeated rights violations, said it was “disappointed” by the sentence.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Journalists, human rights 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.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, also decried Monday’s ruling as “unacceptable”.
CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour said the verdict demonstrates the lengths to which authorities are willing to go to punish these journalists for their work.
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