Egypt jails co-founder of Civil Democratic Movement

Cairo’s Court of Misdemeanours sentenced Yahya Hussein Abdel Hadi, co-founder of the Civil Democratic Movement, to four years in prison, for disseminating false news, his lawyer, Khaled Ali said.

The prosecution argued that Abdel Hadi had “deliberately disseminated false news inside and outside” Egypt and demanded he be punished.

Abdel Hadi’s lawyer said the case is related to an article written and published by Abdel Hadi, noting that the case was investigated in 2018 by the Nasr City Prosecution, and his client was released on bail.

Ali added that Abdul Hadi has been imprisoned pending investigations and spent more than two years in pretrial detention.

Yesterday’s verdict can be appealed to a higher court.

In January 2019, authorities arrested Abdel Hadi ahead of a vote on controversial constitutional amendments that extended President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi’s second four-year term to six years and allowed him to run for another six-year term after its conclusion.

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