Egyptian activist convicted of protest role gets 15 years

Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah stands in front of a criminal court in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, June 11, 2014. A court has convicted Abdel-Fattah for demonstrating without permit and assaulting a policeman, sentencing him to 15 years in prison.

Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah stands in front of a criminal court in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, June 11, 2014. A court has convicted Abdel-Fattah for demonstrating without permit and assaulting a policeman, sentencing him to 15 years in prison.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

CAIRO -- An Egyptian court on Wednesday convicted a prominent activist from the 2011 uprising of organizing an unauthorized protest and assaulting a policeman, sentencing him to 15 years in prison, in the latest blow to liberal activists at a time of rapidly eroding freedoms.

The sentence against Alaa Abdel-Fattah is the toughest against any of the secular activists behind the 18-day uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 29-year reign. It is also the first conviction of a prominent activist since former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took office as president Sunday.

In the 11 months since el-Sissi ousted the country's first freely elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, authorities have launched a crackdown on Islamists, detaining at least 16,000 and killing hundreds. Secular activists opposed to what they see as the revival of Mubarak's police state also have been detained.

The crackdown is being carried out in the face of a burgeoning insurgency by Islamic militants, who have killed and wounded hundreds of policemen and army troops since Morsi's ouster.

As the government has moved to curb freedoms won in the 2011 revolt -- including by enacting a law that severely restricts protests -- pro-military media outlets have stoked a resurgent nationalism and eagerly welcomed the return of a military man to the presidential palace.

An outspoken blogger, Abdel-Fattah has been in and out of prison in the three years since Mubarak's ouster. He campaigned against military trials for civilians during the 17 months that generals held power after Mubarak's resignation. He opposed Morsi, but strongly disapproved of the military's return to politics.

Security officials said that while Abdel-Fattah was convicted and sentenced in absentia, he did turn up at the Cairo courtroom later Wednesday and was detained by police. The absentia sentencing means that he now faces an automatic retrial, although the conviction stands in the meantime.

A human-rights lawyer and family members said the judge opened the proceedings earlier than scheduled and that Abdel-Fattah was kept waiting outside the courthouse, at a police academy south of Cairo, as he sought permission from the judge to enter the heavily guarded complex.

Abdel-Fattah was accused of inciting an "unauthorized" demonstration Nov. 26 against a clause allowing military trials for civilians in the draft of a new constitution, which was later adopted by referendum.

Mona Seif, Abdel-Fattah's sister and one of the organizers of the Nov. 26 protest, said her brother attended the demonstration but denied he had organized it, saying it was called for by a group that campaigns against military trials for civilians.

The demonstration was violently disbanded by police on the grounds that organizers had no permit. Female participants, including Seif, were snatched by police and thrown into a van and then dumped in the middle of the desert that night.

Two other leading activists from the 2011 uprising, Ahmed Maher and Ahmed Doumah, are serving three-year sentences over the November protest.

"The verdicts are meant to exact revenge and send a message of intimidation to whoever dares to speak up against injustice. But the result will be more anger, not fear," said prominent lawyer and rights activist Gamal Eid.

Prosecutors accused Abdel-Fattah of organizing an illegal demonstration and of illegal possession of an object that could be used as a weapon. He and 24 other defendants are accused of using force to take a policeman's two-way radio, wounding him in the process, blocking traffic and posing a threat to public safety and order.

The 24 also were convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia. At least two of them were arrested with Abdel-Fattah.

El-Sissi has said he intends to uphold the protest law and that freedom of speech will have to take a back seat to restoring security and reviving the nation's ailing economy.

Meanwhile, el-Sissi apologized Wednesday to the victim of a mass sexual assault that took place in a crowd celebrating his election, declaring in a televised visit to her hospital bed that he urged every soldier, police officer and "chivalrous man" to eradicate such abuse.

Police are investigating 27 complaints of sexual harassment against women in Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands celebrated el-Sissi's inauguration Sunday, officials have said.

"I apologize to you and as a state we will not allow this to happen again," el-Sissi said. "I am here to tell you and every Egyptian woman I apologize to all of you."

In a statement Wednesday, el-Sissi's office said he had formed a ministerial committee including representatives of the relevant branches of government, the Muslim and Christian religious establishment, and "civil society" in order to "identify the underlying causes behind the proliferation of this phenomenon and delineate a national strategy to address it."

Information for this article was contributed by Hamza Hendawi, Maggie Michael and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press and by David D. Kirkpatrick and May Kamel of The New York Times.

A Section on 06/12/2014