Egyptian Court Sentences Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to 5 Years in Prison

An Egyptian court has sentenced leading activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah to five years in prison, on charges of “spreading false news undermining national security.”  Two other men, blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim and human rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, were sentenced to four years on the same charges. The sentences were announced on Sunday by the State Security Misdemeanors Court in Cairo. The sentences must be approved by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi; there is no appeal mechanism except through the president.

Abdel Fattah, who was a leader in the 2011 revolution that led to the deposing of Hosni Mubarak, has spent most of the past decade in jail over previous convictions, and has spent two years in pre-trial detention in the present case. Human rights groups allege that Egypt is holding some 60,000 political prisoners under poor prison conditions.