Responding to the news that Egyptian activist and writer Ahmed Douma has been convicted and sentenced to one year in prison following an unfair trial, Amnesty International’s Regional Researcher, Mahmoud Shalaby said:
“The renewed unjust imprisonment after an unfair trial of Ahmed Douma is a devastating assault on the right to freedom of expression. The weaponization of the criminal justice system against Ahmed Douma and other activists lays bare president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government’s relentless campaign to crush peaceful dissent and restrict civic space.
“Having already spent a decade in arbitrary detention under cruel and inhuman conditions, Ahmed Douma is being penalized yet again under the guise of bogus ‘false news’ charges, solely for publishing an article and a social media post criticizing detention conditions. His renewed detention is emblematic of the Egyptian authorities’ ongoing misuse of the criminal justice system to punish and deter peaceful dissent, destroying the lives of thousands of people and their families.
Ahmed Douma has been targeted solely for peacefully exercising his human rights. Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him, quash this politically motivated sentence, and end their persistent misuse of the criminal judicial system against him.
Mahmoud Shalaby, Amnesty International’s Regional Researcher
“Ahmed Douma has been targeted solely for peacefully exercising his human rights. Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him, quash this politically motivated sentence, and end their persistent misuse of the criminal judicial system against him.
“Ahmed Douma’s trial was marred by gross fair trial violations. The court rejected defence requests for the court to examine the prison conditions that he had written about and to hear testimony from defence witnesses and experts. The trial was held behind closed doors and was inaccessible to the public.
“This sentence exposes the hollow reality of the presidential pardons Ahmed Douma and others received in 2023 and signals that activists released from prolonged unjust detention are not safe from re-arrest.”
Background
Ahmed Douma is a prominent Egyptian poet, writer, and activist who played a leading role in the 25 January 2011 revolution. He spent nearly 10 years in prison following a politically motivated trial before being released via a presidential pardon in August 2023. Since his release, the authorities have continued to abuse the criminal justice system to target him, including seven separate investigations by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP), an arbitrary travel ban, and restrictions on enrolling in postgraduate studies.
His latest conviction and sentencing to one year in prison stem from an article published on 25 March 2026 in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed concerning the impact of unjust imprisonment on state stability, as well as a social media post criticizing detention conditions. Since 6 April, he had been held in pretrial detention at the 10th of Ramadan prison under restrictive conditions, including receiving fewer visits than permitted under Egyptian prison regulations and being continuously exposed to intense light in his cell. His complaints, made during an online hearing before the judge at the Badr Misdemeanor Court’s pretrial detention review chamber, about being subjected to constant light bombardment in his cell were never investigated.
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