CAIRO: Human rights organizations denounced a court ruling against a man for distributing flyers criticizing the Supreme Council for Military Forces as unprecedented violation of freedom of expression this year. This is the fastest and harshest verdict against freedom of expression since the January 25 Revolution, according to the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). Al Waily Court sentenced Gaber Sayed Gaber Abdel Haq to a one year in prison and a LE 200 fine for distributing the flyers last Friday, Dec. 23, in Abbasiya. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) also condemned the verdict and called for the reconsideration of the Egyptian legislative structure in order to eliminate all articles that are against freedom of expression, which were inherited from the Mubarak regime. “Such court decision is a serious violation against the freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly, which are guaranteed according to the international standards of human rights,” said head of EOHR Hafez Abou Saeda. Verdicts of the local administrative courts stress on the freedom of peaceful assembly of all aspects such as lectures, seminars, debates and speeches, he added. ANHRI will take on the case and represent Abdel Haq, said Gamal Eid, executive director of ANHRI in a statement, “We will defend this citizen who practiced his legal right of freedom of expression.” Eid noted that the expulsion of Prosecutor General, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, is now a wish of hundreds that have been victims of his injustice, whether before or after the Jan. 25 uprising. Mahmoud referred the case to an urgent court, which sentenced Abdel-Haq three days after his arrest.
