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BREAKING: Activist-artist Amr El-Behairy to be released shortly Amr El-Behairy to be released within days after spending year in military detention, lawyer for high-profile activist says
Egypt's military judiciary on Wednesday slapped artist-activist Amr El-Behairy with a six-month jail sentence for attacking military personnel early last year. Since El-Behairy has already served the time, however, he will be released within days, one of his lawyers said. "He is accused of attacking a member of the armed forces during a protest before the Cabinet building in February 2011," lawyer Adel Ramadan told Ahram Online. El-Behairy was arrested on February 26, 2011. Shortly afterward, the 32-year-old activist was sentenced to five years in prison for attacking military personnel during a sit-in staged in front of Egypt's Cabinet building off of Cairo's Qasr El-Aini Street. The sit-in, which was later violently dispersed by security forces, had been organised to protest the Mubarak-appointed Ahmed Shafiq government. El-Behairy was initially charged with possession of illegal weapons despite eyewitness accounts to the contrary. The artist was among the first wave of anti-government protesters in the post-Mubarak era to be sentenced by a military tribunal on the orders of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. His case prompted the emergence of Egypt's "No to Military Trials for Civilians" campaign, spearheaded by activists who were with him during the February protests. "El-Behairy inspired our campaign," leading campaign member Mona Saif told Ahram Online. The "No to Military Trials" campaign has continued to push for the abolition of the practice of referring civilians to military courts; the release of civilian political detainees; and the documentation of human rights abuses said to occur during military detention. El-Behairy has become a familiar face of the Egyptian revolution, with activists spraying graffiti images of him and messages demanding his release around the capital. No less than 12,000 Egyptian civilians were subjected to military trial last year. Activists, meanwhile, have maintained pressure on the ruling military council to end the practice and refer all civilian defendants to civilian courts.
