The Supreme State Security Prosecution on Monday referred activist Ahmed Douma to trial in Case No. 2449 of 2026, with proceedings scheduled to begin Wednesday before the New Cairo Summary Court, human rights lawyer Khaled Ali told Al Manassa.
Douma is charged with “spreading false information inside and outside the country aimed at disturbing public peace and inciting unrest.” The charges originate from a social media post and an article published on the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed website titled “From the Prison within the State to the State within the Prison.” In the piece, Douma argued that imprisonment has shifted from an exception to a prevailing pattern in Egyptian society and criticized the impact of political arrests on state stability.
If convicted under Article 80 (d) of the Penal Code, Douma faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to 500,000 pounds (about $9,524), or both. Legal experts have questioned the constitutionality of this article, which mandates stiffer penalties for spreading false news if the act occurs outside the country.
The referral follows a decision last Tuesday by the Consultative Chamber of the Badr Summary Court to extend Douma’s detention by 15 days pending investigation, according to human rights lawyer Nabeh Elganady.
During that hearing, conducted via video conference, Douma defended himself by claiming he faced the same violations he had described in the post that led to his imprisonment in Badr 4 Prison (10th of Ramadan), Elganady previously told Al Manassa.
According to the lawyer, Douma complained of being subjected to direct floodlights 24 hours a day and requested a prosecutorial inspection of the facility, though the court did not respond to his requests.
Douma’s detention in this case began on April 6, shortly after the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered him held for four days following an investigation session.
The legal targeting of the activist has drawn international and domestic condemnation. Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the repeated legal targeting of Douma and called for an immediate end to what she described as “harassment.”
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) urged Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawky to intervene for Douma’s release and to review the State Security Prosecution’s repeated use of “false news” charges against journalists, human rights defenders, and politicians.
Douma was previously released in August 2023 via a presidential pardon that included him and others. He had served 10 years of a 15-year aggravated prison sentence in the “Cabinet Clashes” case.
