Annual Prison Census 2011 - Egypt
| Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
| Publication Date | 8 December 2011 |
| Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, Annual Prison Census 2011 - Egypt, 8 December 2011, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4f0420af2.html [accessed 30 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Journalists in prison as of December 1, 2011
Egypt: 2
Maikel Nabil Sanad, freelance
Imprisoned: March 28, 2011
Police arrested Sanad, a political blogger and activist, after he wrote an article criticizing the military's performance and lack of transparency before and after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, according to news accounts. Sanad, who maintained his own blog, Ibn Ra, also described being tortured by the military during a previous detention.
On April 10, a military court in Cairo sentenced Sanad to three years in prison for "insulting the military, defense lawyer Ali Atef told CPJ. In October, the Supreme Appellate Court accepted Sanad's appeal and granted him a retrial in a new jurisdiction.
Sanad waged a hunger strike in August to protest his continued imprisonment and mistreatment by military prison guards, his brother, Marc, told CPJ.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, freelance
Imprisoned: October 30, 2011
Military prosecutors summoned Abd el-Fattah, a prominent journalistic blogger, for questioning in connection with his critical coverage of the October 9 clashes between troops and Coptic Christian protesters that resulted in the deaths of at least 25 people, including journalist Wael Mikhael.
Abd el-Fattah, a critic of Egypt's practice of subjecting civilians to military proceedings, objected to questioning by the military and demanded that any case against him be handled by civilian authorities. In response, the military prosecutor ordered he be detained for 15 days pending investigation, according to news reports. The same day, the prosecutor filed a series of antistate charges against him, including "inciting violence against the military." His case was transferred to a civilian court in late November.
Abd el-Fattah and his wife and fellow blogger, Manal, had been critical of the military regime in articles posted to their blog, Manalaa. Abd El-Fattah also wrote an October 20 opinion piece in the independent daily Al-Shorouk in which he criticized the military's investigation of the clashes with Coptic Christians, saying it could not conduct an impartial investigation into its own activities. The article detailed his view of the October 9 clashes and the two ensuing days he spent at the morgue, encouraging victims' families to demand autopsy reports.
In 2006, Abd el-Fattah was detained for 45 days without charge after writing in support of reformist judges and better election monitoring.
