Egypt: Conviction and detention of Maikel Nabil Sanad for criticizing the military

Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested 28 March 2011 at his home for having criticized the army on his blog. He was the object of an expedited trial and was convicted 11 April 2011. Mr. Sanad was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine. He was detained in a military prison in Cairo.

Alkarama sent a request to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 9 June 2011 to intervene with the Egyptian authorities on behalf of Mr. Sanad. We called for the release of Mr. Sanad due to his heavy sentence for expressing his opinion.

Mr. Maikel Nabil SANAD (مايكل نبيل سند), is 26 years old and lives in Cairo. He is known as a blogger in Egypt and an advocate for the end of forced conscription into the military. More recently, he criticized the army in a series of online articles notably on his blog called "The army and the people [have never] acted in concert." His critiques of the army were also published on his personal Facebook page and led to his arrest. He had denounced the abusive actions of many agents of the armed forces during the recent demonstrations in Egypt and especially the management of the armed forces after the fall of the Egyptian President.

Mr. Sanad has also lodged formal complaints on many different occasions, the most recent having been on 22 February 2011 when he was brutally beaten several times by military personnel. These complaints received no follow-up on the part of the authorities.

The authorities instead pursued Mr. Sanad, who was accused of having "insulted the military institution," prohibited by article 184 of the Penal Code, and of having violated article 102 bis. on the "diffusion of false information."

After an expedited trial, the decision was supposed to have been made 6 April 2011 but has been postponed until 10 April. Lawyers were allowed to participate in the trial but considered the time given them to prepare their client's defense to have been inadequate. They were barred from entering the courtroom because there was no verdict. They had thought that their client Mr. Maikel Nabil SANAD would be rapidly released.

Instead, on 11 April 2011, they were shocked to learn that their client had been convicted in a semi-secret manner by the Supreme Military Court and sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine for simply having published his political opinions on the internet.