CAIRO: Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a five-year jail sentence against prominent opposition activist Alaa Abdel Fattah on Wednesday, judicial sources said, a final ruling that cannot be appealed.
Abdel Fattah, who has already served more than three years in prison, was jailed for protesting without permission in breach of a 2013 law that rights groups say effectively bans protests.
The blogger and software engineer was a leading voice amongst the tech-savvy liberal youth who initially led the 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year-rule of Hosni Mubarak.
He is one of the several activists jailed since the military overthrew President Mohammed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood movement and secular democracy activists.
The government has proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization but denies it has cracked down on secular democracy activists.
Prosecutors said Abdel Fattah was guilty of organizing a protest in November 2013 because he had promoted it on social media.
Rights groups said authorities were only able to prosecute Abdel Fattah, who did not attend the protest, by invoking a century-old law of assembly that institutes collective punishment for all those involved in an illegal gathering.
They say the 1914-era law was in fact repealed in 1928 and courts should not be using it. They have sued the president over its use but there has been no response from the government.
Abdel Fattah is also on trial in a separate case where he is accused of insulting the judiciary, a charge that carries up to three years in jail. A verdict is scheduled for December.
Egyptian court upholds leading activist’s jail sentence
Egyptian court upholds leading activist’s jail sentence
Syrian authorities arrest leader of terrorist cells in Lattakia
- Ali Aziz Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011
LONDON: Syrian authorities have arrested Ali Aziz Sbeira, a prominent leader of terrorist cells responsible for attacks on internal security checkpoints, the Syrian army and civilians during the country’s uprising against the former regime of Bashar Assad.
The Internal Security Directorate announced on Wednesday the capture of Sbeira in Lattakia province, located on the Mediterranean Sea.
Authorities accuse him of leading and supplying arms to terrorist groups. Hailing from the town of Jableh, Sbeira is also accused of having links to Ghiyath Dalla and Brigadier General Nours Makhlouf, two military figures associated with the former rule of Assad.
Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011, when he joined the National Defense Militia and helped suppress peaceful demonstrations, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
In 2014, he joined the 4th Armoured Division, which was commanded by Maher Assad, brother of the former president, from 2018 until the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
