#FreeAlaa : Alaa Abdel Fattah, Baqer and Oxygen handed final prison sentence

It is once again Free Alaa.

Earlier Monday, Cairo Emergency State Security Misdemeanor Court sentenced famous renowned activist and blogger Alaa Abdel El-Fattah to 5 years in prison and his co-defendants in the trial, his own lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer and blogger Mohamed Oxygen were sentenced 4 years on charges related to the spread of false news according to his sister Mona Seif.

From left to right: Alaa, Baqer and Oxygen 

It is a final court ruling that can’t be appealed.

Only a presidential pardon or rather a military ruler’s pardon can set them free before the end of the 5 years in this case. 

It is unclear if this sentence will be deducted from their pretrial detention.

Alaa, Baqer and Oxygen spent more than two years in pre-trial detention - more than is allowed under Egyptian law since their arrest in 2019 following the protests that broke that fall over the videos of private contractor Mohamed Ali. 

It is the second high profile case involving prominent Pro-25 January activists who are sentenced in front of the Emergency State Security Misdemeanor Court recently for nearly the same sentence.  

Former MP Ziad Al-Eliemy was sentenced to five years, journalists Hisham Fouad and Hossam Mones to four on several charges above them spreading false news.  

It is worth mentioning that this trial is one of the trials Abdel Fattah is standing if I remember correctly.

Alaa Abdel Fattah spent more time in prison in those ten years than outside it.

He missed the early years of his own and only son Khaled so far.

Khaled was named after Khaled Abdel Said, the famous symbol of Egypt’s democratic movement in the revolution

The amazing and strong Dr Laila Soueif wrote an amazing op-ed about Alaa as well as others like him in the New York Times.

Do you know that Soueif’s op-ed is the first for an Egyptian woman to be featured on the Frontpage of the international edition New York Times last week !?

NYTimes International Edition, check the left column

I wish it would be something more cheerful in Egypt.

I have a confession, I have been avoiding blogging about Alaa and others in the past few months because it depresses me and it makes me wonder “Would it help !?” after all.

It is frustrating. Alaa’s quote from his book “You have not been defeated yet” summarizes a lot

“We came of age with the second intifada. Took our first real steps in the world as bombs fell on Baghdad. All around us, fellow Arabs cried, ‘Over our dead bodies!’ Northern allies chanted, ‘Not in our name!’ Southern comrades sang, ‘Another world is possible.’ We understood then that the world we’d inherited was dying, and that we were not alone.”

I would add that then everyone failed us in addition to our own failure.

Mona Seif has been said repeatedly recently that as soon as Alaa and Sanaa will be released, they will leave the country. It breaks my heart and it kills me but I can’t blame them

Sanaa should be released within days after serving 18 months in jail after finding her guilty of "spreading false news".

I wish to see that day when we do not say online #FreeAlaa because Alaa along with other detained activists will be free, out of jail and enjoy their freedom.