Ahmed Douma, an Egyptian poet, writer and fighter for political rights, was imprisoned yet again April 6. He was accused of “publishing false news and statements inside and outside the country with the intent to disturb public peace and spread panic.”
The charges are all based on things he’s written, including an article published in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed (The New Arab), a London-base news outlet, entitled “From the Prison Inside the State to a State Inside the Prison,” where he describes the years of detention and oppression he’s faced and argues this destabilizes the state. He has also been charged with “disseminating false news” in relation to online posts about an assault on imprisoned activist Mohamed Adel.
Douma was a central leader during the heroic 2011 mass occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo that drew widespread working-class involvement and brought down the repressive regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
He was arrested and imprisoned in 2012 for participating in a sit-in and again in 2013 after the Egyptian government passed draconian laws against protests. In 2015 he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for political activity.
He served nearly 10 years behind bars, including four years and eight months in solitary confinement, and faced torture and mistreatment.
He won release in 2023 on a presidential pardon, but was continually harassed by government prosecutors. The latest charges are just more of the same.
Much of his poetry was written in prison. One poem was exhibited at the 2021 Cairo International Book Fair, until security forces ordered its removal. It describes his imprisonment:
My cell sings you a song
Whose melody opposes return
Whose lyrics grant me
Spaciousness
A little song that, in hope, resembles
A homeland’s embrace
An embrace wide enough for all
A homeland
That is not merely a collection of graves.
The fight to win his freedom is backed by many international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, PEN International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, International Federation for Human Rights and a number of political rights groups in Egypt.
Douma was tried April 29. The court declined the defense’s request for testimony from several prominent figures previously held in the same facilities or expert testimony on the difference between news reporting and opinion pieces.
The New Cairo Summary Court said it will issue its verdict June 3. If convicted, Douma faces another five years in prison.
Amnesty International urges supporters of political rights to spread the word and send letters of appeal demanding Douma be “immediately and unconditionally released as he is arbitrarily detained solely for exercising his rights to freedom of expression.” Letters should be sent to Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky Ayyad, Office of the Public Prosecutor, Madinat al-Rehab, Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt. Or email: m.office@ppo.gov.eg.