Egypt blogger faces military trial
AFP
CAIRO- An Egyptian blogger detained for writing a post critical of the armed forces faced a military court on Monday accused of "publishing false information about a military institution."
Student Ahmed Mustafa, 20, was summoned to the military prosecutor's office in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh on Thursday and has been in detention since for criticising the military academy in a blog more than a year ago.
Egyptian soldiers in Cairo in 2004
Cairo-based rights group, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), which has been closely following the case, expressed "extreme shock" at the decision to refer the blogger to a military court.
"It seems that the Egyptian government has decided to drive the war against bloggers, to the point of unfair military trials," ANHRI said in a statement.
The group said Mustafa's lawyers were denied access to investigation documents.
The watchdog urged the Egyptian government "to stop this military trial immediately and drop the unfair charges against (Mustafa)."
"ANHRI stresses the illegitimacy of criminal prosecutions in publication cases, not to mention military trials that lack basic fairness conditions," it said.
Egypt's emergency law allows indefinite detention and the trial of civilians in military courts.
Rights groups and regime opponents have long called for the law, in place since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar al-Sadat, to be lifted.
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