Activists given suspended sentences in 2012 arson case

Giza Criminal Court handed out one-year suspended sentences to activist Alaa Abd El Fattah and his sister Mona Seif, as well as 10 other defendants, Sunday. The 12 had faced charges of arson, illegal assembly and terrorizing people.

The case was brought following the burning of the campaign headquarters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq in May 2012. 

The defendants will appeal the suspended sentence, which remains in effect for three years, reported lawyer Ragia Omran, who attended the session.

Omran wrote on her Twitter account that the ruling proves that the “judiciary is politicized” and that the road to having a fair judiciary is long.

According to Omran, the sentence means that if the activists are charged again with similar charges during the next three years they will have to serve both the new and the old suspended sentences.

Seif and Abd El Fattah’s involvement in the case came after eyewitnesses reported during investigations into the incident that they had seen the activists in a car near the headquarters shortly before the fire.

Shafiq had dropped the case shortly after the incident. But the prosecutor general under former President Mohamed Morsi revived the case, summoning both activists for questioning. The court continued to deliberate the case after Morsi was removed from power, under Hisham Barakat, the new prosecutor general.

Abd El Fattah did not attend the ruling as he is currently jailed as part of an investigation in another case, charged with violating the new assembly law. Abd El Fattah’s family said that the court rejected their request to have him attend the session.

Following the ruling, Seif posted a strongly worded message on her Facebook account, accusing the judiciary of displaying weakness and hesitation by failing to either acquit the defendants due to the lack of evidence or give them a harsh ruling that corresponds with the violent charges they were facing.

Seif added that among the 12 people sentenced, one is a vegetable vendor who was not involved in the events.