As part of an ongoing policy to end freedom of expression, an Egyptian court has finally decided to refer journalist Ahmed Sebea to trial in case No. 1360 of 2019 supreme state security, after about 30 months of pretrial detention.
On February 28, 2020, Sabea was arrested from the vicinity of a mosque in the Fifth Settlement area. He was interrogated and detained in Case No. 1360 of 2019 Supreme State Security, after being charged with broadcasting, publishing and spreading false news, misusing Facebook, and belonging to a terrorist group. This set of accusations is typically targeted by the Egyptian regime against its critics.
The authorities imprisoned Sabea in the notorious Scorpion 2 prison, and since then he only met his lawyer once in February 2022.
Sabea is being deprived of his necessary medicine, which threatens his health situation, as he suffers from spinal pain, as well as severe inflammation of the nerves of the neck.
Journalist Sabea was previously arrested in 2013 on charges of spreading false news and belonging to a banned group in case 2210 of 2014/59 of 2014, known in the media as the “Rabaa Operations Room.” He remained in solitary confinement for nearly four years until a criminal court acquitted and nullified the charges against him on May 16, 2017, only to be rearrested again in February 2020.
Egypt ranks 3rd in countries that detain the largest number of journalists, after China and Myanmar, where the number of imprisoned journalists has reached 25 in 2021, according to the report of the International Committee to Protect Journalists for 2021.
Egypt also ranked 168 in the Press Freedom Index for 2022, according to the global classification issued by Reporters Without Borders on the World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, 2022.
