5 Years for a Retweet: Egyptian Rights Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Sentenced by Emergency Court

An emergency court in Egypt has sentenced leading human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to an additional five years in prison on the charge of “spreading false news undermining national security” for sharing a post on Twitter. El-Fattah has been imprisoned since his arrest in September 2019, just six months after he was released following a five-year prison term for his role in the peaceful demonstrations of 2011 that led to the fall of Egypt’s longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. “Alaa wasn’t even in the courtroom,” says El-Fattah’s aunt, the acclaimed Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who was in the courtroom at the time of his sentencing. “What Alaa did was he had one retweet, and they are punishing him for that with a five-year prison sentence.”

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[Stop-and-listen]

The USA is prosecuting Assange
Egypt is prosecuting Alla

Egypt and the USA have a despicable record in human rights.

[gracerichards]

How long shall these wicked politicians continue to govern wickedly over ordinary people all over the world

[SensoriaMaRia]

Egypt... my Arabic heart is with you as it is with my people in Palestine. When will we humans finally come together to rid ourselves of the brutal systems that oppress us?

[dawnpalmby]

Its semantics, he died under torture vs he died afterwards in solitary confinement - which technically is also torture. Either way they tortured that man and he died while in their custody.

[asleepawake]

How the heck is dictatorial "stability" more important than a functioning NGO watching those very dictators accountable for human rights? countries must.never use a "national security" excuse to violate human rights.

[samhalim]

There is no human rights in the world, its a joke.

[dmenterprises]

Inequality and democracy cannot survive together.Sedition, defamation & counter terrorism laws are tools for suppression of human rights. Economic inequality impacts the GDP per capita. It gives rise to poorer public health and illiteracy, thus increasing crime rates, fuelling political instability, and eventually destabilising the society. Society members also become pessimistic and lose faith in the government. Poverty is primarily the consequence of the way society is organised and resources are allocated, whether these are financial or other resources such as access to housing, health and social services, education and other economic, social and cultural services.

[thenoseknows]

This is These dictators will get what's coming to them, one day!!!! karma is a BITC*

[roseturcotte]

Is that not like the insurrection in the states ?

[seansmith]

"You understand I'm speaking from Cairo".
Chilling words.

[joehoey]

Egypt is acting under american empire rules.
we see it around the world, where they have influence.

[rodmeauxadesacra]

Demos Kratein (Gr). Greek Ideology, Imported and adopted by USA.

[yt]

People like you have a first amendment right and it’s backed up by the Second Amendment. How long do you think you’d be able to speak about these kinds of subjects if our government didn’t want you to?

If the first amendment applies to radio, TV and Internet and the fourth amendment applies to add electronic surveillance and video surveillance then the second amendment applies to modern weapons.

[miraahmed]

Not for just a retweet, in so many tweets he called for forming an armed group to kill police officers, that guy is dangerous