Egypt's Post-Coup Government Expands Oppression Beyond Muslim Brotherhood: Sentences Alaa Abdel Fattah, Key Leader of 2011 Arab Spring Protests, for 15 Years

Egypt's 'Democratic Government' seeks to terrorize all would be protesters by giving the most prominent secular activists long jail sentences after fake trials based on bogus charges.—Ronald David Jackson

Alaa Abdel Fattah moderates a "Tweet Nadwa" in Cairo, Egypt - July 6, 2011. During a Tweet Nadwa, each
speaker is limited to 140 seconds. Fattah has 609k followers on Twitter. (Photo by Lilian Wagdy)

By Reuters
An Egyptian court sentenced leading activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to 15 years in jail on Wednesday for violating a protest law and on other charges, his lawyer said.

Abdel Fattah was a symbol of the 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. Twenty four other people were also sentenced to 15 years in jail on similar charges.

The ruling came three days after former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sissi was inaugurated as president, nearly a year after he toppled the country's first freely-elected leader, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Since Morsi's fall, security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and arrested thousands of others.

They have also rounded up secular activists like Abdel Fattah, raising concerns the authorities are turning the clock back to the Mubarak era, when any form of dissent was risky.

Read More