Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Egyptian authorities to overturn the harsh prison sentences imposed on 29 men and women solely because of their peaceful activism.

Development Diaries reports that the activists, who are members of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, received sentences of between five years and life in prison on 05 March.

Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at HRW, Eric Goldstein, said in a statement that the sentences suggest that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government is not serious about reforms.

‘The cruel prison sentences against Ezzat Ghoneim and his colleagues at the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms present yet one more piece of evidence that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government is not serious about reforms’, he said.

The defendants in case 1552 of 2018 faced charges under the penal code and the counterterrorism law of leading or joining a ‘terrorist’ organisation, namely, the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, which the authorities claimed is part of the Muslim Brotherhood.

‘All the charges set out in the prosecution referral order stem solely from the group’s work in documenting and publishing human rights violations on their website and social media, as well as providing legal and other assistance to detainees’, the statement added.

The case involved 30 defendants, about 14 of whom have been in prolonged, unlawful pretrial detention since late 2018.

Freedom House ranked Egypt as ‘not free’ in its Freedom in the World 2023 report on political rights and civil liberties, with the North African country earning 18 points out of a possible 100.

Source: HRW

Photo source: Dan H