Egyptian military court ruled of imprisoning a blogger for infiltrating to Gaza

Posted by Iqbal Tamimi Something wrong is going on in Egypt regarding the way it is dealing with journalists lately. The Egyptian government decided a couple of days ago to try the journalist Majdi Hussein, the secretary-general of the Egyptian Labour party in a military court - even though he is a civilian - because he broke the law when he tried to "illegally enter the Gaza Strip". And today a Military Court in Ismailia city in Egypt issued its ruling to imprison the blogger Ahmed Doma for a year and fined him 2000 pounds for infiltrating to Gaza, which happens to be the maximum penalty.

The Egyptian blogger was arrested last week upon his return from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, the Egyptian authorities accused him of infiltrating across the eastern border illegally in violation of the presidential decree 298 of 1995. If it was up to the Egyptian people they will all infiltrate to Gaza. The people of Egypt had always a strong connection with the Palestinian nation and were appalled by their government’s stand when Israel bombarded Gaza mercilessly for 22 continuous days, while the Egyptian government stood there watching and blocking the way in the faces of the people who were starved to death and burned beyond recognition.The Federation of The Arab bloggers demanded from the Egyptian authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally, claiming that the blogger Ahmed Domah did not commit a criminal act, on the contrary, he went to Gaza to offer his support to Gaza people.

The Federation of Arab bloggers expressed its member’s dismay in a statement issued in this regard considering a prison sentence of one year and the fine of 2000 pounds is a harsh sentence, besides the fact that Ahmed was tortured psychologically during the investigation.

The Federation has requested of all bloggers and Arab human rights organizations to intervene and to work on his release for he was one of the most active bloggers, and most sensitive poet.



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