Egyptian journalist, blogger and human rights activist Wael Abbas has been sentenced to six months in prison according to his Twitter page. In his tweet he says “I was sentenced to 6 months in prison in absentia, I don’t know yet what for, will update you.” His family home was raided yesterday and searched by plain clothed police while the activist was attending a bloggers’ conference in Beirut, according to both Abbas and his mother.
Author Magdi El Shafai and his publisher Mohamed El Sahrqawi were fined 5,000 Egyptian pounds for the publication of graphic novel Metro. The court ruling, on 21 November, deemed the two men guilty of “making and publishing something that was regarded immoral to the public”. The court ruling also ordered that all copies of the novel be confiscated.
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Egyptian author and thinker Sayed Al-Qimni has been threatened and denounced as an apostate by Islamic organisations including Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya and the Muslim Brotherhood Since receiving the State Award of Merit in Social Sciences from the Egyptian government for his work. Read more here
Egyptian poet and teacher Mounir Saeed Hanna who had previously been sentenced to three years imprisonment and a US$18,000 bail has been acquitted. He was originally charged with writing a poem that insulted the president. Read more here