Lawyer sentenced to 10 years in prison for ‘insulting’ Egyptian president

A court in Alexandria has sentenced lawyer Mohamed Ramadan to 10 years in prison, five years of house arrest and a five-year ban on using the internet after he was found guilty of insulting the state president, news agencies have reported. The sentence was issued in absentia and is, said Ramadan’s lawyer Mohamed Hafiz, a message to critics of the Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi regime that they must beware when they use the internet.

According to Ramadan himself, the whole case is based on trumped up charges. “Like any other person, I post my political views [online] without insulting or abusing anyone,” he insisted. “I did not incite terror. The ruling aims to deter the opposition and silence opposition voices in Egypt.”

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Amnesty International criticised the ruling and described it as outrageous. “He [Mohamed Ramadan] was convicted on a series of vaguely worded national security charges including insulting the president, misusing social media platforms and incitement to violence, under the country’s draconian counterterrorism law,” the human rights organisation said in a media statement.

Amnesty’s Campaigns Director for North Africa, Najia Bounain, said that it is “utterly shocking” that the Egyptian authorities have imposed such a heavy sentence against someone who was exercising his right to freedom of expression. “Posting a comment on Facebook is not a criminal offence; no one should face imprisonment for expressing their views, even if others consider their comments offensive.”

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Ramadan’s conviction, she added, is a blatant assault on freedom of expression and is a chilling illustration of the danger to peaceful critics posed by the authorities’ abuse of the 2015 counterterror law. “Instead of locking-up people for expressing their views online, the Egyptian government must end its relentless campaign to intimidate government critics.”

Ramadan is planning to appeal for a retrial, which is the right of defendants under Egyptian law when court rulings are passed in absentia.