Alexandria activists sentenced to prison for breaking protest law

Seven activists in Alexandria were found guilty of protesting without permission on Thursday. The Alexandria Misdemeanor Court sentenced them to two years in prison with a fine of LE50,000.

The activists were protesting in front of the Alexandria Criminal Court in early December during the retrial of police forces accused of killing Khaled Saeed, an iconic figure whose torture and death at the hands of the police is often seen as a spark for the January 25 revolution.

The demonstration in Alexandria came shortly after police forces dispersed a similar protest in Cairo in front of the Shura Council against military trials for civilians, which defied the recently passed Protest Law that bans protests without prior notification of security forces.

Alexandria-based activist Mansour Hamdy told Mada Masr that the organizers of the demonstration against police brutality insisted on not notifying police forces as a sign of protest against the law.

Soon after protesters began gathering, police forces started dispersing them with tear gas and water cannons, and detained activists Loai Kahwagy, Islam Hassanein and Omar Hazeq.

During investigations into the incident, four more activists were accused of deliberately defying the Protest Law, including human rights lawyers Hassan Mostafa and Mahienour al-Massry.

Mostafa was previously sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting a prosecutor during ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s time in office. Activists alleged the charges were fabricated to target the lawyer for his opposition to Morsi, and the sentence was reduced to one year before it was dropped following mounting pressure to release him.  

Mostafa and Massry did not hand themselves into the authorities, declaring that they would not acknowledge the Protest Law, and on Thursday were sentenced in absentia, Hamdy added.

Twenty-five Shura Council protesters including activist Alaa Abd El Fattah were referred to the Cairo Criminal Court for defying the Protest Law. Founders of April 6 Youth Movement Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel and activist Ahmed Douma were sentenced for three years in prison by a misdemeanor court for violating the law in a similar protest in Abdeen.