An Egyptian court Monday sentenced activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to five years in prison after he was tried on charges of “spreading false news undermining national security.” Alongside Abd El Fattah, the New Cairo Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court also sentenced human rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer and blogger Mohammed Ibrahim “Oxygen” to four years each in Case 1228/2021. 

All three defendants were arrested regarding their social media posts on human rights violations. Both Abd El Fattah and his lawyer El-Baqer have been held in pretrial detention for more than the legal limit of two years.

The verdicts passed by the emergency court cannot be appealed. Human rights groups have criticized these unjust emergency trials, due process abuses, and repression of the freedom of expression in Egypt. In May, the US and 30 other countries issued a joint statement condemning the human rights situation in Egypt and calling on President Sisi’s government to abide by international human rights law:

“[W]e are deeply concerned about the application of terrorism legislation against human rights activists, LGBTI persons, journalists, politicians and lawyers. We urge Egypt to end the use of terrorism charges to hold human rights defenders and civil society activists in extended pre-trial detention and the practice of adding detainees to new cases with similar charges after the legal limit for pre-trial detention has expired. We also ask Egypt to cease the use of the terrorism entities list to punish individuals for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

The US Department of State on Monday also condemned the verdicts issued against the three prominent human rights figures. While the State Department’s spokesperson emphasized that human rights is an important area of improvement that would strengthen the bilateral relations between the US and Egypt, it remains unclear whether the US would condition any aid upon improvements in Egypt’s human rights track record.