CAIRO — An Egyptian court fined prominent
human rights activist
Hossam Bahgat on Monday for "insulting" the
country's electoral commission on social media, a judicial source said.
اضافة اعلان
Bahgat, founder of the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was fined 10,000 pounds ($635) after he alleged incidents
of electoral fraud during last year's parliamentary elections, in tweets and
Facebook posts.
Parliament is mostly comprised of loyalists
of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and critics view the chamber as a
"rubber-stamp" body.
Since Sisi became president in 2014
following the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi the year
before, he has overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent with estimates of
60,000 political prisoners jailed.
In July, the US State Department expressed
its concern over the indictment of Bahgat, saying dissidents "should not
be targeted for expressing their views peacefully".
Bahgat was charged with "spreading
false news", a common accusation levelled against Egyptian dissidents in
recent years.
The verdict can be appealed, the judicial
source said.
Bahgat, who is also a journalist, is already
banned from travelling and his assets have been frozen because of a separate
case in which he remains indicted.
Authorities have in recent years
particularly targeted the group Bahgat founded.
Three EIPR staff were jailed last year,
sparking an international campaign supported by celebrities including Hollywood
star Scarlett Johansson that resulted in their release.
Another EIPR researcher, Patrick Zaki, has
been detained since February 2020 and faces charges of "spreading false
news" after he returned to Egypt from Italy, where he was studying at
Bologna University.
Last week, 46 human rights groups signed a
statement calling on Egyptian authorities to drop the charges against Bahgat,
describing them as "a clear reprisal".
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