WELL-KNOWN Egyptian activist and outspoken blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison in a retrial yesterday, reducing his earlier 15-year tariff.

Mr Abdel-Fattah, who came to prominence during the 2011 national uprising against the Mubarak dictatorship, had been charged with organising an unauthorised protest and assaulting a police officer.
The verdict was condemned by defence lawyers and supporters who said that he should have been set free.

The retrial began in October and involved 25 defendants, five of whom are fugitives. Besides Mr Abdel-Fattah, only one other defendant, Ahmed Adel-Rahman, received a five-year prison sentence. The rest were sentenced to three years.

Judge Hassan Farid also ruled that all the defendants be placed under surveillance for a period similar to their prison terms after their release, requiring them to report daily to the police.

The courtroom erupted after the verdict, with relatives and friends in the gallery shouting: “Down with oppression!”

Police ultimately ordered everyone to clear the courtroom.

Defence lawyer Mohammed Abdel-Aziz decried the verdict as “harsh and oppressive,” saying that the court “didn’t take into consideration any of the evidence that showed the defendants’ innocence.”

Human-rights lawyer Taher Abou el-Nasr commented: “Regrettably, the verdict was expected. We no longer expect acquittals.”

Defence lawyers said that they will take an appeal to the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appeals court.
In a brief address before he delivered the verdict, Judge Farid insisted that the ruling was “free of any interference or caprices.”