Egyptian court finds activist Bahgat guilty over elections tweet

A court in Egypt convicted leading human rights activist Hossam Bahgat of “insulting” the country’s election authorities in a tweet he wrote last year. 

Bahgat, who is the founder of the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), was fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $640) on Monday, his organization announced. 

In July, Bahgat was charged with insulting election authorities, spreading false news and misusing social media to commit crimes. The charges were linked to a December 2020 tweet, in which he accused the former president of the National Election Authority of corruption during the parliamentary elections. 

Last week, a group of 46 rights organizations called on Egypt to halt its “harassment and persecution” of Bahgat, describing his charges as designed to “punish him solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and his human rights activism.” 

Since taking power after a 2013 coup, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has waged what human rights groups say is a crackdown on dissent. Security forces have carried out widespread arrests, including of a number of US citizens and permanent residents. 

In November 2020, Egypt arrested three EIPR members on terrorism and false news charges, in apparent retaliation for the group’s meeting with European diplomats in Cairo. They were released the next month following international condemnation, including from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but remain subject to asset freezes and travel restrictions. 

Blinken has said human rights will be “central” to the US-Egypt relationship. In July, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Bahgat and other activists “should not be targeted for expressing their views peacefully.”