‘Disgraceful’: Egypt jails activist Douma after article on its prisons

An Egyptian court has sentenced prominent activist and poet Ahmed Douma to one year of prison with labour for “spreading fake news”, according to state media Akhbar al-Youm.

The sentence on Wednesday comes nearly three years after the former political prisoner was freed by a presidential pardon in August 2023, after almost 10 years behind bars.

The charge of “spreading fake news” is regularly levelled against Egyptian dissidents, including activists, journalists and academics, as well as everyday social media users.

Douma was most recently arrested in April after publishing an article in the London-based pan-Arab news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Egypt’s prison conditions.

Prior to his sentencing, Douma “had been held in pretrial detention … under restrictive conditions, including receiving fewer visits than permitted under Egyptian prison regulations and being continuously exposed to intense light in his cell”, according to Amnesty International.

Rights group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said the article reflected his own experiences in prison, making imprisoning him on fake news charges “unconstitutional”.

Rights group PEN America called the sentence “disgraceful”. “His case embodies part of an escalating crackdown on writers in Egypt, where poems and articles are routinely weaponised as courtroom evidence,” said PEN’s Asma Laouira.

Amnesty International condemned Douma’s sentencing, saying it was an attack on the right to freedom of expression.