A Misdemeanours Emergency State Security Court in Egypt today sentenced researcher and master’s student Ahmed Samir Santawy to four years in prison after convicting him of publishing “false news”, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, Philip Luther said:
“It is outrageous that Ahmed Samir Santawy was sentenced to four years behind bars following a flawed conviction on entirely spurious grounds by a special state security court. His conviction is based solely on social media posts criticizing human rights violations in Egyptian prisons and the state’s mishandling of the pandemic, which he has, in any case, denied writing.
“Regardless of the author of the posts, criminalizing the dissemination of information based on vague concepts such as ‘false news’ is contrary to the right to freedom of expression guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution and international human rights law.
“Verdicts by Emergency State Security Courts cannot be appealed and must be authorized by the president. We therefore call on the Egyptian president to quash Ahmed Samir Santawy’s unjust conviction. He must be released immediately and unconditionally.” Continue
