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HRW: Egypt should overturn harsh, 5 March prison sentences 

March 8, 2023 at 1:25 pm

Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre in Badr city, Egypt. [KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images]

The Egyptian government should overturn the harsh prison sentences imposed on 5 March following a mass trial of 29 people, says Human Rights Watch.

The activists sentenced belong to the human rights group, the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), and have been targeted “solely because of their peaceful activism,” according to the rights watchdog.

The Emergency State Security Court in Egypt issued prison sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment for leading or joining a terror group, in this case the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms which they claim is part of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Among those sentenced was Aisha Al-Shater, Houda Abdel Moneim, Ezzat Ghoneim, Mohamed Abu Horarira and former Secretary-General Mahmoud Hussein.

Most of the defendants were arrested in 2018 as part of a nationwide crackdown on dissent.

Two lawyers, Ezzat Ghoneim and Mohamed Abu Horarira, were sentenced to 15 years in prison each. Abu Horarira’s wife, Aisha Al-Shater, the daughter of Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater, was sentenced to ten years.

READ: Egypt political prisoner Al-Morsi tortured to death

After they are released, all 29 defendants will be placed on police-supervised parole and the terror list, which means their assets will be frozen and they will be banned from travelling.

Because the sentences were issued by an emergency court, they cannot be appealed, they can only be overturned by the president himself.

The court also ordered that the website of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms be shut down.

Mass trials have been widely criticised by human rights groups because defendants are often arbitrarily arrested with little or no justification, and their cases are not heard individually. Torture is very common to extract confessions.

The cruel prison sentences show that Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s government is “not serious about reforms,” says Middle East and North Africa director at HRW, Eric Goldstein. “For the authorities, peaceful activism is to be suppressed and punished.”