In Egypt, criticising those in charge can land you in a lot of trouble…
Amr Nohan has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for having ‘attempted to overthrow the regime’ after being accused of adding Mickey Mouse ears to a photo of the country’s leader, President al-Sissi.
The 28-year-old – who was on the verge of completing his 15-month military service – denies creating the image, claiming he cannot even use Photoshop. When interviewed by La Libre Belgique, his family stated that he was only guilty of sharing the photo.
Many people took to Twitter to show their support for Amr Nohan and to slam the Egyptian government for its handling of this case and its human rights record.
Human rights lawyer Mohamed Hafaz told La Libre Belgique:
After attacking activists, journalists and even defenders of human rights, the regime is threatening internet users. I think that Amr Nohan has been sentenced as an example to frighten others.
The RSF 2014 ranks suggest Egypt isn’t much of an advocate for freedom of speech, ranking at 159 out of 180 places on the world scale of press freedoms.
At this time, reportedly at least 18 journalists are in al-Sissi regime jails and Amnesty International estimates since he came to power in July 2013, more than 41,000 Egyptians have been arrested and imprisoned.
With the amount of jokes, memes or general piss-takes we dish out to our politicians in the UK and U.S, if there was a similar punishment here pretty much most, if not all of us would be imprisoned – it’s a terrifying thought.
This certainly makes you feel lucky to live in a land of democracy and free speech…
