Egyptian Activists Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail for Protests
By KAREEM FAHIM
The three well-known activists were convicted under a new law seen as
part of the military-backed government’s effort to curb dissent.
Reuters
From left, Ahmed Maher (in hat), Ahmed Douma and Mohamed Adel in a Cairo court on Sunday.
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: December 22, 2013
CAIRO — Three activists who played leading roles in the uprising against
former President Hosni Mubarak were convicted on Sunday of
participating in protests and sentenced to three years in prison by an
Egyptian court.
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The activists — Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma — were also each ordered to pay more than $7,000 in fines.
Human rights advocates said the harsh sentences were the first verdicts in a political case against non-Islamists since the military ousted President
Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July. The verdicts against
the three leading activists were a potent reminder of the persistence of
Egypt’s old order.
Gamal Eid, the director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights
Information, said there was little doubt that Egypt’s military-backed
leaders intended the sentences as a warning to pro-democracy activists.
“It is time to shut up, to stay quiet,” Mr. Eid said, summing up the
message. “There is only one choice — to support the military or to be in
jail.”
The defendants were accused of violating a controversial new law
that criminalizes gatherings of more than 10 people without
authorization. The charges stemmed from an episode last month in which
the riot police tried to disperse activists who had gathered outside a
courthouse to protest an arrest warrant served against Mr. Maher.
The three men were also charged with assaulting police officers, several
of whom may have, in fact, choked on their own tear gas, according to a
lawyer for the defendants. The men are expected to appeal the
sentences.
A government crackdown that followed Mr. Morsi’s ouster was focused
squarely on the former president’s Islamist supporters, who were shot at
protests in successive mass killings and thrown into prison by the
thousands. In recent months, Egypt’s ascendant security agencies have
seen a threat from the revolutionary activists who, just three years
ago, were hailed around the world as Egypt’s saviors for helping to
topple Mr. Mubarak after his three decades of autocratic rule.
Drawing on unwavering public support for the crackdown, the authorities
cast a wider net: After Mr. Morsi’s ouster, officials who had warned
Egyptians about the danger of Islamist “terrorism” also began to warn
about the threat from youth activists, calling them a “fifth column”
seeking to destroy the country.
The activists have suspected that Egypt’s most powerful state
institutions, which have remained unreformed through the country’s years
of upheaval, are trying to extract a measure of retribution against
critics and for the toppling of Mr. Mubarak.
“The judiciary and the state are taking revenge against us, clearly,”
Rasha Azab, a journalist and antigovernment activist, wrote in a post on
Twitter after the verdicts on Sunday. “Nobody forgot what was done to
the symbolic figures of the Mubarak regime.”
After months of international criticism for the repressive measures of
the security services, Egypt’s diplomatic isolation has eased as
regional and Western allies, including the United States, have sought to
court the new government and its unofficial leader, Gen. Abdul Fattah
el-Sisi, the powerful army chief.
Egyptian officials have promised a speedy transition to democracy, while
simultaneously broadening the scope of the crackdown. In recent days,
the government has been promoting a referendum on a draft constitution
that is supposed to be part of a road map that will lead to elections.
It has also moved aggressively against its opponents on several fronts.
Last week, new charges
were leveled against Mr. Morsi, implicating him in elaborate
conspiracies to destabilize the country before his ouster on July 3. On
Wednesday, state security agents raided the offices
of a human rights organization, apparently to arrest Mr. Adel. During
the raid, agents beat other employees of the organization and ransacked
its offices.
The verdicts on Sunday raised fears for several other prominent
activists currently on trial on similar charges in Cairo and Alexandria.
Mr. Maher and Mr. Adel are both founders of the April 6 youth movement,
which rose to prominence with protests against Mr. Mubarak’s rule
beginning in 2008 and played a central role in the revolt that toppled
him. Mr. Douma, also a well-known antigovernment activist, was most
recently convicted of insulting Mr. Morsi and given a suspended
six-month sentence.
In a letter from prison on toilet paper, Mr. Maher wrote a withering tract about the country’s authoritarian turn.
“Torture in police stations remains, while the Ministry of Interior is
back to what it was,” he wrote. “The protest law was passed, and the
oppression of freedoms is back.
“Now,” he added, “the youth of the revolution are in prison.”
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