Egypt 'illegally' sentences detained journalist Yasser Abu Al-Ela to life in absentia as crackdown goes on

Over the weekend, a Cairo criminal court "illegally" sentenced an already detained journalist to life in absentia without any chance to defend himself, amid concerns over a systematic crackdown on media freedom and free expression in a country ranked among the world's worst jailers of journalists.

On Sunday, independent journalist Yasser Abu Al-Ela has been handed down 25 years in prison with hard labour, the maximum imprisonment sentence in Egypt, on terrorism-related charges, while he is held in pre-trial detention and in the absence of a lawyer representing him during the trial.

The ruling "strips him of his legal as well as human rights," the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate said in a statement shortly after the verdict.

Systematic crackdown

The syndicate's freedoms committee expressed concerns towards what it described as "subsequent escalations targeting journalists in Egypt that jeopardise their freedom as well as the journalist as profession," the statement read.

"Legally, Abu Al-Ela is also entitled to a representative of the syndicate as well as the union's lawyer to attend the trial and defend him," the statement read. The crackdown, the union noted, have significantly escalated since July this year.

The syndicate, meanwhile, vowed to appeal the verdict before a higher court.

Abu Al-Ela, also a syndicate member, had been detained on 10 March and reportedly taken to an undisclosed location where he was kept for 50 days, rights reports said.   

After he appeared before the investigative authorities, Abu Al-Ela told a state security prosecutor who interrogated him that he had been subjected to physical and emotional violations, allegedly, at the hands of state security police, but his complaints were officially undocumented, the reports added.

It remains unclear whether he had been informed beforehand of the trial, or how many trial sessions were held.  The New Arab could not reach a member of his defence team for comment.  

As the case with most of detained and regime critics over the past decade, Abu Al-Ela has been faced with the charges of "being involved in a terrorist group, disseminating false news, and misusing social media tools."

No further details were available on his situation, but Abu Al-Ela is believed to have no political affiliations that conflict with the current regime.

Separately, also on Sunday, satirical cartoonist Ashraf Omar's pre-trial detention was renewed for another 15 days via video conference, pending further investigations into similar accusations.

According to his lawyers, who were present during the session, Omar was not allowed to make a statement as his microphone was set to mute.

"It is the ninth renewal. What are they expecting?" Omar's wife, Nada Mougheeth, rhetorically asked in a post on her Facebook page two days later.

Last Monday, the detention of former Saudi MBC Group senior journalist Khaled Mamdouh was renewed for 15 days.

Unexpectedly, Mamdouh was permitted to speak to the prosecutor during the renewal session, "demanding to be faced with actual accusations as he complained about poor imprisonment and [alleged] mistreatment by the prison administration," read a newsletter released on Sunday by Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, a local high-profile rights group.

Both Mamdouh and Omar were taken from their homes in the capital, Cairo, in separate night raids in July to unknown destinations. They appeared days later at station security prosecution offices.

The two men have been facing a list of charges has by now become familiar to almost every activist and journalist in the country.

Known for refraining from politics before the January 2011 Revolution erupted, Mamdouh had not covered Egyptian affairs for long years before his detention. The reasons behind indictment remain a mystery to the media community.

The cartoonist's arrest, however, is believed to have been triggered by his criticism of the government via his creative cartoons published in independent news outlets. These cartoons included the sale of state assets to wealthy Gulf nations as a temporarily easy solution to the country's economic crisis and shortage of foreign currency.

In one of his caricatures, published less than a week prior to his detention, a government official is depicted as a thief offering a map of Egypt to another one dressed in a traditional Gulf outfit and holding a shopping cart.

In a recent, exclusive interview with TNA, Mougheeth argued that her partner was jailed just for "stating the obvious…for drawing cartoons."

Repetitive scenario

The scenario of enforced disappearance has been repeated with other journalists over the past years. Earlier this month, journalist Ahmed Bayoumy, who had disappeared for 47 days, finally appeared before a Cairo state prosecutor's office and faced similar terrorism-related accusations as well.

Despite covering news mostly on arts and culture, Bayoumy was detained for two before years without trial, again for similar charges, and was recently released after the 24-month legal limit ended. 

Bayoumy's wife and sister were reportedly subjected to enforced disappearance after they frequently filed official complaints that demanded the disclosure of his whereabouts. They were later released after allegedly being subjected to intimidation by the authorities. Their legal status remains unclear.

A total of 16 journalists of 23 ones, currently behind bars, had reportedly exceeded the legal tw0-year detention duration; some of them have been held for up to five years without standing trial, according to the syndicate sources.

In this context, rights groups and free press advocates have repetitively accused Egyptian authorities of filing trumped-up charges against journalists and regime critics before the 24 months are over. By doing so, they remain illegally incarcerated for years without verdict.

In April last year, the Egyptian security authorities listed 33 journalists on a new "terrorism" watch list among 82 people, including activists, politicians, and human rights defenders, all living in self-exile outside the country.

Over 500 local and international websites and news outlets, including A-Manassa that Omar worked for, Mada Masr, and Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the Arabic-language sister publication of TNA, have been blocked in Egypt over the past years.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has run the country with an iron fist after he took office following a military coup in 2013. Media freedom and civil rights have sharply deteriorated since then.

Prominent journalist and activist Eman Ouf believes that "the Egyptian regime has currently made it almost impossible for journalists to do their job amid frequent acts of intimidation and persecution."

"The atmosphere is not generally fit for free expression or press freedom in specific for the authorities have frequently targeted us. We often keep our sources anonymous for their protection," she told TNA.

"It is true that the syndicate has been playing a crucial role in pushing for the release of our jailed colleagues, but the regime does not seem to respond to such endeavours," Ouf concluded.