In a quick session on Monday that lasted minutes judges at Abdin Appeals Court issued what many lawyers described as a “shocking” ruling when they rejected Ahmed Doma, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel's appeal against their three-year prison terms and fines of LE 50,000. The leading 25 January Revolution activists were initially convicted in December of charges of holding an illegal demonstration and attacking police officers. The judicial panel convened earlier than usual which prevented the families of the three activists and many lawyers from attending. The defendants chanted “down, down with military rule,” and “arrest me, but you will never see fear in my eyes” as they were escorted back to jail. Some lawyers wept when the judgment was read. There were angry reactions among supporters who had gathered outside the heavily guarded court house at the Tora Police Institute Gamal Eid, a lawyer and prominent human rights activist, said he had assumed the first-degree court ruling would be overturned “given the convictions were backed by no serious evidence or solid testimonies by reliable witnesses”. He added that the defendants could still appeal to the Court of Cassation “but this could take up to two years, meaning that they would be about to leave prison just as we receive a final ruling”. Maher, founder of the 6th April Movement, turned himself over to prosecutors on 1 December for questioning over his role in taking part in an unauthorized demonstration against civilians being tried by military courts. While he was being interrogated his supporters clashed with the police outside Abdin Court. His colleague Adel, also a leading figure in the 6 April Movement, and Doma, a radical activist, were also inside the Court as the clashes took place. The three were subsequently arrested by police and charged with offences under the recently passed, and extremely controversial, Demonstration Law, approved by Interim President Adli Mansour in late November. They have been held in prison since being detained and were sentenced to three years imprisonment on 22 December. Norhan Hifzi, Doma's wife, immediately called upon supporters to gather in front of Al-Ithadiya Palace in Heliopolis to press President Mansour to issue a pardon for the three. She proposed a sit-in by the families and women supporters but as hundreds of young people gathered in front of the palace and chanted slogans against former Defence Minister and presidential candidate Field-Marshall Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and against the Muslim Brotherhood, Hifzi called upon them to leave, fearing clashes with nearby anti-riot police. Hifzi said she would call for more protests until her demands are met, including a demonstration scheduled for today, 10 April, at an unspecified location. Several political parties claiming loyalty to the 25 January Revolution, including Al-Dostour, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Popular Trend, the Egypt Freedom Party, the leftist Bread and Freedom Party, and a campaign movement Freedom for the Brave held a news conference on Tuesday at which they voiced two demands: a presidential pardon for Doma, Maher and Adel, and the revoking of the Demonstration Law. Hamdeen Sabahi, who is facing an uphill battle against Al-Sisi in the presidential election, hopes to win the support of young revolutionary movements. “It is not right that Egypt, which witnessed two popular revolts on 25 January, 2011 and 30 June, sends the young men who took part in those revolutions to prison because of an unfair law,” he said. “Yet those who carried out many injustices and killed young protestors remain free.” Hala Shukrallah, president of Dostour Party, founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former vice president Mohamed Al-Baradei, said she was extremely dismayed by a ruling “that sends a very negative message to all the young people who took part in the 25 January Revolution, telling them that nothing has changed and that you will continue to go to jail because of repressive laws”. She vowed to continue to press, in coordination with other political parties and youth movements, for a presidential pardon for the three activists. Elham Aidaros, a leading member of the Bread and Freedom Party, argued the last thing Egyptians expected after taking part in the 30 June demonstrations against Mohamed Morsi was to see laws such as the Demonstration Law - “which clearly dates back to the Mubarak era” - enter the statute book. “We didn't get rid of the Brotherhood so that the Mubarak regime could return back to office. We said we were revolting on 30 June to restore the goals of the 25 January Revolution - freedom, social justice and respect of human dignity.” Under the Demonstration Law organisers of unauthorised protests can be jailed for five years. The law gives wide powers to the Interior Ministry to ban demonstrations on the vague grounds of “threatening internal peace and security”. According to Aidarous “hundreds of young people have been tried under this unjust law over the last five months and the minimum sentence doled out is two years”. “Nowhere else in the world do young people go to jail for two years simply peacefully demonstrating.” Sixth of April Movement member Mohamed Attia, who attended the news conference with other parties on Tuesday, said what made things worse “was the return of practices such as torture and other serious violations against detainees… This is definitely not the democratic state we wanted to see when we revolted on 25 January, 2011”. US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) sharply criticized Monday's ruling. “Today's verdict against three of the most recognised faces of the January 25, 2011 protests is one more nail in the coffin for Egypt's revolution,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East director. “The appeals court has failed to undo the worst excesses of the government's campaign to crush dissent.” The 6th April Movement has been denounced by supporters of the old Mubarak regime as being Western agents. Some have even complained the whole 25 January Revolution was a Western conspiracy. Hifzi ridicules such allegations. The three activists, she points out, were sent to jail for three years because accused of demonstrating illegally whereas “had the authorities any evidence they were agents, or received money from abroad, they would not have been tried on the ridiculous charge of organising a protest” .
