The revolution seems to have made the Egyptian regime very quick to take offence from all those ungrateful pesky Egyptians. In April, the courageous blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad was jailed for three years on the ludicrous charge of "insulting the military" – which is an offence only to our intelligence. The posts that got him in trouble include one in which he contends that "the army and people were never a single hand" and another that accuses the interim regime of "recycling the same old shit" but this time on a china plate.
In protest against his sentencing, Sanad began a long hunger strike in jail. Now reports are emerging that he has been moved to a psychiatric hospital, drawing severe condemnation from Egypt's mental health community. An interesting blog containing Sanad's determinedly outspoken writings from prison has been set up by his friends.
Human rights activists cautioned at the time of Sanad's imprisonment that it set a "dangerous precedent", and their warning seems to have been sound. Since the revolution began in January, an estimated 12,000 civilians have stood in the dock before military courts, which is more than the total number of cases during the Mubarak era. This is despite the fact that one of the key demands of the revolution was to abolish the emergency laws that make it possible for the regime to execute such summary "justice".
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Egypt Must Protect The Right To Insult
27th October 2011
Khaled Diab
The revolution seems to have made the Egyptian regime very quick to take offence from all those ungrateful pesky Egyptians. In April, the courageous blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad was jailed for three years on the ludicrous charge of "insulting the military" – which is an offence only to our intelligence. The posts that got him in trouble include one in which he contends that "the army and people were never a single hand" and another that accuses the interim regime of "recycling the same old shit" but this time on a china plate.
In protest against his sentencing, Sanad began a long hunger strike in jail. Now reports are emerging that he has been moved to a psychiatric hospital, drawing severe condemnation fromEgypt
Human rights activists cautioned at the time of Sanad's imprisonment that it set a "dangerous precedent", and their warning seems to have been sound. Since the revolution began in January, an estimated 12,000 civilians have stood in the dock before military courts, which is more than the total number of cases during the Mubarak era. This is despite the fact that one of the key demands of the revolution was to abolish the emergency laws that make it possible for the regime to execute such summary "justice".
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