2-year sentences upheld for 9 activists in Alexandria

Despite feeling optimistic about the fate of her case, Alexandrian activist Mahienour al-Massry was taken into custody after an appeals court affirmed a two-year sentence against her and eight others for breaking the Protest Law.

“She was quite optimistic, and I was hoping this would be resolved myself. She said she would be coming to a talk I was giving after the verdict,” said Amro Ali, a PhD candidate who researches Alexandria’s urban politics.

Massry was taken into custody after the trial and was unavailable to comment. The Revolutionary Socialists group said that she had been moved to the Alexandria security directorate on their Facebook page.

The defendants, including human rights lawyers Massry and Hassan Mostafa, were charged with breaking the Protest Law, which bans gatherings of 10 or more people without an official permit.

The “unlawful protest” refers to a gathering on December 2, 2013, outside the trial for police officers accused of murdering Khaled Saeed in 2010. Arrest warrants were issued to five of them based on charges of incitement to violence and the destruction of a police car, independently owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. 

Saeed's death and the public outrage that followed are cited among the events that helped galvanize public opinion against the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Ali said that it was unlikely that people in Alexandria were concerned about the verdict. “I haven’t gone out to the streets,” he said. “My Twitter feed is going off the hook, but that’s just Twitter.”

“The danger is the movement she belongs to. This puts the Revolutionary Socialists in the spotlight. They play an important role as one of the most effective groups in Alexandria despite their politics, which people might not agree with in general.”