Egyptian Activist Alaa Abdel Fatah Sentenced to 5 More Years in Jail

An Egyptian State Security Court has sentenced activist Alaa Abdel Fatah to 5 years in jail on Monday, December 20th on charges of spreading false news that threatens the county’s national security.

Also ReadEgyptian Political Prisoner Alaa Abd El Fattah’s Life is in Danger

The court has also sentenced human rights lawyer Muhammad Al-Baqir and the blogger Mohamed Ibrahim, who is well known as Mohamed Oxygen, to four years jail term.

Human rights activists have denounced the sentence decision made by the Egyptian court as injustice and unfair. The US State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said regarding the verdict the US government was "disappointed" by the sentences handed down to 3 prominent activists in Egypt.

Price further added that journalists and human rights defenders should be able to exercise their freedom of expression without facing “criminal penalties.”

On the other hand, the Egyptian foreign ministry responded to the US State Department spokesman’s statement and said the countries’ relations must not be linked to such issues.

Two years ago, the Egyptian authorities separately arrested the three defendants and they were held in pretrial detention of nearly two years. 

Last October, the three human rights defenders were referred to trial in Case No. 1228 of 2021 on charges of spreading false news.

Alaa Abdel Fattah’s mother pleaded earlier to save her son from jail saying that he is facing harsh treatment in Egyptian detention. She said that Alaa is facing inhumane living conditions, torture, and poor medical care.

In February 2015, the political prisoner received a 5-year jail sentence then he was released  and rearrested again during the 2019 Egyptian protests by the National Security Agency and was taken to State Security Prosecution on charges that were unknown as of 29 September 2019.