10 rights groups demand Egypt release political activist Ahmed Douma

Ten human rights organisations have demanded Egypt immediately release blogger and activist Ahmed Douma, one of the founders of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, as he has no judicial avenues to take to end his detention.

Douma has been held for eight years arbitrarily, a statement by the organisations said. He is also denied educational human rights because of his political activities and persistence in pursuing democracy, they added.

In December 2013, Security forces arrested Douma for being around Abdeen Court during a demonstration against the Egyptian protest law. Douma, Ahmed Maher, and Mohamed Adel were sentenced to three years imprisonment and subject to police observation for another three years.

He was later handed a life term and fined 17 million Egyptian pounds ($1.08 million) in “an unfair trial”. An appeal’s court later reduced the sentence to 15 years imprisonment and a fine of six million Egyptian pounds ($382,000).

The rights bodies said the trials were unfair and lacked impartiality.

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He is now being held in the notorious Tora Prison and his health has suffered as a result of being held in solitary, in a small cell with inadequate ventilation, he has not been given a bed to sleep on and is not allowed out of the cell to exercise. Douma now suffers from osteoarthritis, chronic inflammation of the nerves, pain in his back and neck, depression and acute anxiety attacks, migraines, and blood pressure.

Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Belady Foundation- Island of Humanity, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Committee for Justice, Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Egyptian Front for Human Rights, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the Freedom Initiative and the Nadeem Centre against Violence and Torture were all signatories to the letter.