{"id":24026,"date":"2014-06-11T11:41:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T11:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=24026"},"modified":"2014-06-11T11:41:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T11:41:57","slug":"egypt-activist-jailed-for-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=24026","title":{"rendered":"Egypt activist jailed for 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A court in Egypt has sentenced one of the country’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, Alaa Abdul Fattah, to 15 years in jail for illegal protest and attacking a police officer.<\/p>\n

Mr Abdul Fattah’s family said the verdict was issued in absentia as he was refused entry into the court.<\/p>\n

Mr Abdul Fattah played a key role in the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n

The sentence comes three days after ex-army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi took office as president.<\/p>\n

The authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists and secular activists since former President Mohammed Morsi was removed by the military in July 2013.<\/p>\n

Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.<\/p>\n

‘Concerns about democracy’<\/p>\n

Mr Abdul Fattah was arrested in November after taking part in a protest calling for the repeal of a new law that banned unauthorised demonstrations.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, his mother Laila Soueif told the BBC Mr Abdul Fattah had not been allowed into the court for the verdict.<\/p>\n

“Alaa and his lawyers were outside the court. They were refused entry,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There was not justification for the judge to issue this verdict in absentia… we expected a court hearing with the prosecution and witnesses speaking.<\/p>\n

\"Egyptians<\/div>\n
Mr Sisi won May’s elections with nearly 97% of the vote<\/div>\n

“I believe that the judicial system in Egypt has nothing to do whatsoever with law and justice.”<\/p>\n

She added that the family would challenge the verdict.<\/p>\n

The campaigner was previously detained under Mr Mubarak’s government and questioned over demonstrations against the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.<\/p>\n

The harsh sentence will deepen concerns about democracy and free speech in Egypt, the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Cairo reports.<\/p>\n

In a recent BBC interview, Mr Abdul Fattah said the authorities intended to jail him for a very long time, and the current regime was worse than Mubarak’s, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n

\"File<\/div>\n
Activists have demonstrated against a crackdown on activists and a law restricting protests<\/div>\n

The new president, Mr Sisi, won 96.9% of the vote in May’s elections.<\/p>\n

However, turnout was below 50%, as Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and some liberal and secular activists urged a boycott of the poll.<\/p>\n

Mr Sisi’s victory came almost a year after he ousted Mr Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, following mass protests against his rule.<\/p>\n

Mr Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, stepped down after mass anti-government protests in 2011, following nearly three decades in power.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A court in Egypt has sentenced one of the country’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, Alaa Abdul Fattah, to 15 years in jail for illegal protest and attacking a police officer. Mr Abdul Fattah’s family said the verdict was issued in absentia as he was refused entry into the court. Mr Abdul Fattah played a key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":24027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1351,1352,14,1353],"class_list":["post-24026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-japan","tag-japan-elections","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah","tag-snap-elections-in-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}