CAIRO: In a decision that flies in the face of promises by SCAF to limit military trials for civilians, Mohammed Ali, a student, was sentenced to two years in prison by a military court three months ago.
Ali was arrested by military police in one of several crackdowns on Egypt’s iconic Tahrir Square, but whose “bad luck” led him to get into a fight with an army officer, according to his wife Kholoud Mohammed.
"It was a normal argument between my husband, who owns a building, and an army officer who owns an apartment in the same building, which escalated to a fight and a two-year prison sentence," Mohammed told Daily News Egypt.
"My husband wanted to build two new floors in the building he owns, but owners of the apartments refused even though he had secured the necessary permits … the army officer picked a fight," she said.
Mohammed confirmed that her husband summoned the military police for help.
"What happened later was a total farce. The army officer brought a gun out of nowhere and accused my husband of using it to threaten the residents," she said, after which Ali was arrested and charged with threatening citizens with a weapon.
Even though the investigations showed that the gun was an old, broken one left on the rooftop of the building and picked up by the officer to frame Ali, he was sentenced to two years in military prison.
"The whole charge should have been voided, but my husband was arrested on May 3 and received the prison sentence on May 7," Kholoud added.
"I kept protesting in front of the Ministry of Defense for days, but my efforts were in vain, until finally I managed to get an appointment with the secretary of General Hassan El-Ruwainy, Head of the Army’s Central District.”
"I was told that I will hear good news about my husband in ten days at most," she said.
Activist and member of the "No to Military Trials" campaign Shahira Abouellail told DNE that there is no difference between how protesters are treated by the military and how other ordinary civilians arrested outside Tahrir Square are also treated.
"This is not the first time we are promised "good news" that takes months and months to emerge, it is the same way of tackling the issue," Abouellail said.
"Some individual cases are deliberately targeted by the military and no matter what we do, the release is very difficult such as the cases of Amr El-Beheiry and Mikel Nabil, but normal cases like Ali are more common and easier to address," Abouellail added.
Blogger Nabil, sentenced for five years, was arrested last March from his home in Ain Shams for a blog post titled "The army and the people are not one hand" in which he listed the violations of military police and recounted what he called the conspiracy by the army against the revolution.
El-Beheiry was an activist peacefully protesting in Tahrir and was detained last February during a violent crackdown on the square by the military police and also received a five-year prison sentence.
