EGYPT;THE GENERALS STATE
State security court sentences former MP, two journalists to prison for 'destabilising public peace'Amr Kandil , Ahram Online , Wednesday 17 Nov 2021
An Egyptian emergency state security misdemeanour court sentenced lawyer and former MP Ziad El-Eleimy to five years in prison on Wednesday for spreading false news on social media among other charges
Ziad El-Eleimy.
The court also sentenced journalists Hossam Mones and Hisham Fouad to four years in prison on the same charges.
El-Eleimy served as an MP representing the Egyptian Social Democrartic Party in the 2012 Parliament.
The prosecution charged the 13 defendants with crimes including cooperating with a group established in violation of the law, disseminating false news and information about the political and economic conditions in the country in order to destabilise public peace and undermine trust in state institutions.
In June 2019, El-Eleimy, Mones and Fouad and the rest of the defendants in the case were arrested for what the interior ministry described at the time as a hostile plot dubbed ‘Hope Cell’ to “disrupt the national economy.”
In the same case, Activists Mohamed Bahnasy and Hossam Nasser received three years. Meanwhile, Labour activist Fatma Abul-Maaty received a three-year sentence in absentia.
The court also imposed a fine of EGP 500 on all defendants in the case.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
Unlike ordinary courts, emergency state security court rulings cannot be appealed.
The defendants, however, have the right to petition for clemency.
In April last year, a Cairo criminal court said the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood leaders had tasked members and associates of the group in Egypt, including the Hope Cell defendants, with providing logistical support and weapons to carry out the scheme against the state.
According to the court, the plot sought to "provide financial support for hostile actions against the Egyptian state with the aim of harming national interests and economic security, and carrying out aggressive actions against the army and the police to topple the regime."
In July of this year, the Court of Cassation upheld a ruling placing the 13 defendants in the case on the country's terrorism list for five years.
Egyptian ex-lawmaker and journalists get prison sentences
FILE - Egyptian protesters shout slogans against the then ruling military council during a rally in support of then member of Parliament Zyad el-Elaimy outside the Egyptian parliament in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 21, 2012. An Egyptian court on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, sentenced former lawmaker el-Elaimy, a prominent human rights lawyer, to five years in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated. The court found el-Elaimy guilty of conspiring to commit crimes with an outlawed group -- a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has banned as a terrorist organization. The banner shows el-Elaimy with Arabic that reads, "your hands raised in front of injustice will move future generations." (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)More
Wed, November 17, 2021,
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer to five years in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated.
The Misdemeanors State Security Emergency Court in Cairo found Zyad el-Elaimy, a former lawmaker, guilty of conspiring to commit crimes with an outlawed group. That's a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has banned as a terrorist organization.
The court also sentenced journalists Hossam Monis and Hisham Fouad to four years in prison on the same charges. Two other defendants got three-year sentences. All were fined 500 Egyptian pounds (around $32).
Defense lawyer Khalid Ali said Wednesday's verdict is not subject to appeal before civilian courts because it was issued by an emergency court. He said the defense would file an appeal to a military court.
The global rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned the charges against the defendants, saying they stemmed from "their peaceful political activities.” It called for President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to quash the sentences and release them.
"These politicians and activists should never have been arrested in the first place and yet they have been convicted and sentenced to prison on charges related to their legitimate criticism of the Egyptian authorities," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's regional research and advocacy director.
The convicted men were arrested in June 2019 after they met with political parties and opposition lawmakers to hash out how to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
In March 2020, a court sentenced el-Elaimy to a year in prison after it found him guilty of “deliberately spreading fake news.”
El-Elaimy was added by a court in 2020 to a list of suspected terrorists for the next five years, a decision upheld by the Court of Cassation — Egypt’s highest criminal court.
A vocal critic of the government, el-Elaimy is a leading activist in the secular Egyptian Social Democratic Party. He served as a member of parliament after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat President Hosni Mubarak.
The Egyptian government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
FILE - Egyptian protesters shout slogans against the then ruling military council during a rally in support of then member of Parliament Zyad el-Elaimy outside the Egyptian parliament in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 21, 2012. An Egyptian court on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, sentenced former lawmaker el-Elaimy, a prominent human rights lawyer, to five years in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated. The court found el-Elaimy guilty of conspiring to commit crimes with an outlawed group -- a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has banned as a terrorist organization. The banner shows el-Elaimy with Arabic that reads, "your hands raised in front of injustice will move future generations." (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)More
Wed, November 17, 2021,
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer to five years in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated.
The Misdemeanors State Security Emergency Court in Cairo found Zyad el-Elaimy, a former lawmaker, guilty of conspiring to commit crimes with an outlawed group. That's a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has banned as a terrorist organization.
The court also sentenced journalists Hossam Monis and Hisham Fouad to four years in prison on the same charges. Two other defendants got three-year sentences. All were fined 500 Egyptian pounds (around $32).
Defense lawyer Khalid Ali said Wednesday's verdict is not subject to appeal before civilian courts because it was issued by an emergency court. He said the defense would file an appeal to a military court.
The global rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned the charges against the defendants, saying they stemmed from "their peaceful political activities.” It called for President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to quash the sentences and release them.
"These politicians and activists should never have been arrested in the first place and yet they have been convicted and sentenced to prison on charges related to their legitimate criticism of the Egyptian authorities," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's regional research and advocacy director.
The convicted men were arrested in June 2019 after they met with political parties and opposition lawmakers to hash out how to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
In March 2020, a court sentenced el-Elaimy to a year in prison after it found him guilty of “deliberately spreading fake news.”
El-Elaimy was added by a court in 2020 to a list of suspected terrorists for the next five years, a decision upheld by the Court of Cassation — Egypt’s highest criminal court.
A vocal critic of the government, el-Elaimy is a leading activist in the secular Egyptian Social Democratic Party. He served as a member of parliament after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat President Hosni Mubarak.
The Egyptian government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
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