Former MP, journalist, activists handed lengthy prison sentences for false news charges

Politician Zyad Elelaimy, journalist Hisham Fouad, Hossam Moanis, and three other political activists were handed lengthy prison sentences on Wednesday after an emergency state security misdemeanor court convicted them on charges of “spreading false news at home and abroad that suggested to public opinion the illegitimacy of state institutions,” according to defense lawyer Tarek Khater.

Elelaimy, a former MP, was handed a five-year sentence, while Moanis — who managed the elections campaign of former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi — and Fouad, were given four-year sentences.

Two other defendants, Hussam Nasser and Mohamed Bahnasy, were sentenced to three years on the same charge, while labor activist Fatma Ramadan was handed the same sentence in absentia.

 Each of the six defendants sentenced on Wednesday must also pay a LE500 fine.

Detention orders were originally issued for all six of the defendants in June 2019, when they and several others were arrested on the back of discussions to form a new political alliance meant to stand in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

The sentences cannot be appealed, since they were handed out by an emergency court. Instead, the ruling will be referred to the military ruler — “the president of the republic or whoever he commissions” — to be ratified. Once ratified, a ruling is final and may not be appealed apart from through the submission of a grievance to the military ruler.

All of the defendants can still be tried and issued with additional sentences in relation to outstanding charges that were leveled at them in the original 2019 investigation they were detained in, Khater, a member of the defense team, told Mada Masr.

Despite the fact that all of the defendants have now been held in remand detention for more than two years, the maximum upper limit on how long suspects can legally be held before being referred to trial, all are likely to serve their full sentences, said lawyer Khaled Ali. Any time spent in remand detention for the 2019 case will not be deducted from Wednesday’s sentence unless the remaining charges standing against them are dropped, said Ali.