Military Court sentenced a blogger for three years in jail for insulting armed forces ruling in Egypt right after the dismissal of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Gamal Eid, who leads the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), stated that the Nasr City military court set the decision that Maikel Nabil will be imprisoned for three years. He added that the verdict was handed over almost in secret saying that the lawyers were not around.
The Egyptian military committee originally set the decision for Wednesday however it was moved to Sunday.
Eid said that the lawyers arrived at the courts on Sunday but they were informed that there had been no verdict that was set. He added that they were shocked hearing that Maikel Nabil was already been sentenced to jail for three years.
Many bloggers who hoped that Mubarak’s ouster would guide Egyptians into exercising a new period freedom have been worried since the verdict was bestowed to Nabil. It was a week ago when Human Rights group requested that the charges set for Nabil should be dropped.
The Director for Human Rights Watch of Middle East and North Africa, Sarah Leah Whitson, said that such trial sets a dangerous precedent at a time when Egypt is trying to transition away from the abuses of the Mubarak era.
Nabil’s verdict was the first trial issued to a blogger by the military court after the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took over the control after Mubaraks’ resignation that happened in February 11 after anti-Mubarak protesters demonstrated for a consecutive time of 18 days.
According to HRW, Nabil was arrested on March 28 by the military police after he posted blogs that criticized the military. Furthermore, it was said that Nabil’s posts as well as his comments for the social networking site, Facebook, have been used as evidences presented during the trial.
On the previous year, there was also one blogger that was put into prison for six months. The lawyer of the sentenced blogger said that he was convicted after publishing “military secrets” using Facebook for presenting instructions on how to join in the armed forces.
Meanwhile, there was another blogger who have been acquitted after publishing a post in connection to an alleged patronage in a military academy.
The armed forces vowed to turn over the power to a civilian government whenever parliamentary and presidential elections are brought to p(–foul word(s) removed–).
Several numbers of people have been into trial for the past weeks due to offenses like robbery and (–foul word(s) removed–)aults. Based on the reports from the human rights group, the quick trials were set and often lead to harsh sentences.