Egypt: five years in prison for politician and rights defender Ziad al-Elaimi

Archive: Egyptian protesters shout slogans against the then ruling military council during a rally in support of then-MP Ziad el-Elaimi outside the Egyptian Parliament in Cairo, February 21, 2012. © AP Photo / Amr Nabil, Case

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1 min

Egyptian politician and human rights defender Ziad el-Elaimi was sentenced this Wednesday, November 17, 2021 to five years in prison by a state security court for "spreading false information".

Five other people, journalists and activists, were sentenced to three to four years in prison on the same charges.

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With our correspondent in Cairo,

Ziad el-Elaimi was arrested in June 2019 under the state of emergency law which allows for the detention without trial of someone deemed by the authorities to be a threat to national security.

At the time, Elaimi planned to form an opposition coalition to participate in the 2020 legislative elections. He was elected deputy of a center-left party in 2011 after the uprising and the dismissal of Hosni Mubarak.

Close to Mohamed el-Baradei, figure of the revolution and ephemeral vice-president after the dismissal of the President Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi, he became an opponent of the power dominated by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Before his arrest, Elaimi with many NGOs denounced the arbitrary and massive arrests of opponents, including the Muslim Brotherhood, when the brotherhood had been classified as a terrorist organization by law.

► To read again: Six activists released in Egypt after international criticism

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• Egypt

• Human rights