Secret hearings and sentences of hard prison .. Egypt retries 48 of those who reject the coup and arrest journalists

The Cairo Criminal Court has ruled that 48 critics of the coup, who were sentenced in absentia in the case known as the al-Fath mosque, should be retried.

The court sentenced four detainees to 10 years' imprisonment, five to seven years' imprisonment, and 32 to five years' imprisonment.

The court also sentenced three defendants to three years in prison and acquitted four others.

The hearings were held in private, the media were prevented from covering the hearing and only members of the defense team were present.

Arrests
Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities arrested Ahmed Shaker, a journalist in the government newspaper "Rose El Youssef", at dawn on Thursday after Egyptian security forces stormed his home in Toukh city in Qalyubia governorate north of Cairo, according to a member of the board of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Amr Badr.

Badr pointed out that the union contacted the concerned authorities in the Ministry of Interior to investigate the circumstances of his arrest, and has not received a response from them so far.

Several colleagues of the detained journalist, whose whereabouts are still unknown, and the charges against him, called for an emergency general assembly in the Journalists' Syndicate to demand that the authorities release all prisoners of conscience.

Belonging to a terrorist group
Earlier, an Egyptian lawyer and journalists were also arrested in Cairo and accused of links with a "terrorist" group, a lawyer said Thursday, at a time when Egypt is witnessing a wave of repression affecting press freedom.

Photographer Hossam al-Sayyad and his wife, freelance journalist Sulafa Magdy, were arrested on Tuesday along with lawyer Mohamed Salah in a cafe in Cairo, according to the couple's lawyer Nabih al-Janadi.

Al-Janadi told Agence France Presse that the State Security Prosecution accused them of joining a "terrorist" group. As for Majdi, she was also accused of spreading false news.
The three defendants will remain in detention for 15 days, renewable.

El-Gennady filed a complaint with the public prosecutor after Salafa Magdy said she was tortured by police officers in the Dokki district of Cairo to where she was taken after her arrest.

Three journalists working for an independent Egyptian website were released on Sunday after being briefly detained and the site was searched by plainclothes policemen, the news website reported.

The arrests took place the day after another journalist from Mada Masr, Shadi Zalat, was released on Sunday, according to his Twitter account. MADA Egypt has been known for investigations into corruption and security issues.

Amnesty International on Sunday condemned the raid on Mada Masr's headquarters, calling on the Egyptian government to "refrain from punishing journalists for carrying out their legitimate work."

Since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014, Egypt has seen a crackdown on dissidents, activists and journalists.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday called on the Egyptian authorities to respect press freedom. "As part of our long-standing strategic relationship with Egypt, we continue to emphasize the fundamental importance of respect for human rights and public freedoms and the need for a strong civil society," he said.