To protest 4-year sentence for ‘false news’ charges, family of graduate researcher Santawy files petition

In protest of a four-year sentence for false news charges that researcher Ahmed Samir Santawy was handed by an emergency court in June, his family appealed last week by submitting a grievance to the office that ratifies rulings from the emergency courts.

Since there is no other appeals process for rulings handed down by emergency courts, there is no other legal recourse for Santawy to be excused of his conviction for spreading false news from abroad on the domestic situation in Egypt.

Santawy has been held in detention for over six months to date. In opposition to his June conviction, he went on hunger strike for 40 days, but ended the strike due to a significant deterioration in his health and in response to family pressure, his brother, Abdel Rahman, told Mada Masr at the time.

The grievance, filed by defense lawyer Ahmed Ragheb, urges the office to rescind the ruling and close the case. Ragheb argued that the sentence violates Articles 70 and 71 of the Constitution that safeguard freedom of expression. Moreover, Ragheb stated in the grievance that the ruling was based on a technical report that only viewed copies of content allegedly posted on Santawy's account and did not view the actual account, which renders it unreliable digital evidence under the 2018 cybercrime law.

The grievance submitted by the Santawy family is the only viable way to intercept the conviction before it is ratified by the military ruler or a delegate. Since the ruling was issued in an emergency court, only the military ruler or a delegate is allowed to alter the conviction. The president or a delegate is also allowed to abolish or reduce legal penalties under Article 155 of the Constitution.

Santawy, who is midway through a postgraduate degree at Central European University in Austria, returned from Austria to Cairo on vacation and was arrested in February. Upon his arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, he was questioned about a thesis he was writing on abortion and Islam. On February 1, he was forcibly disappeared when he presented himself at a National Security Agency office in Cairo’s First Settlement in response to a summons from a security agency that had raided the family home on January 23.  Several days later, he was ordered held in remand detention by the State Security Prosecution on charges of terrorism and spreading false news.  

In May, he was included in a separate investigation on charges of joining a terrorist group and disseminating false news, and was referred to an emergency state security court.

His lawyer Nabih al-Genady told Mada Masr at the time that Santawy told the prosecution that he was hit in the face repeatedly in detention in Cairo’s First Settlement, and that the security officers who were interrogating him asked him about his relationship with Ultras al-Ahlawy (a group of Al-Ahly football club fans) and the Muslim Brotherhood, although Samir confirmed that he did not belong to either group.