Retrial Sentences Alaa Abdel-Fattah and 18 others

News has broken that activists Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Ahmed Abdel Rahman have been sentenced to five years in prison with a fine of LE100,000 each, as well as five years probation, at their Shura Council retrial.

Sadly they weren’t the only ones charged, as 18 other defendants were sentenced to three years prison, three years probation, and a fine of LE100,000. Four defendants that were originally given 15 years jail sentences were sentenced to the same fate when they once again failed to appear at the trial.

What is dubbed as the ‘Shura Council Trial’ refers to an incident that took place in November 2013, when groups of activists demonstrated outside the Shura Council to call on the constitutional committee to ban military trials for civilians.

Originally, all 24 defendants faced charges of rioting, participating in unauthorised protest, disrupting lives of citizens and exposing them to danger, attacking an on -duty employee, and thuggery. They were sentenced in absentia in June 2014 to 15 years in jail and a fine of LE100,000, until the court decided to retry them in October.

Despite a reduced sentence the court erupted into chants of "Down, down with military rule!" after the verdict was read out. Immediately after verdict, Defence lawyer Taher Abo El-Nasr told Ahram Online that they will appeal the ruling with Cassation Court.

Also serving a two year sentence for protesting against the protest law is Abdel-Fattah’s younger sister, Sanaa, who received her sentence in December and is but just one of the hundreds of activists, including many of the January 25^th revolutionary icons, as well as Islamists that have been arrested and tried under the new protest law.