EGYPT / Detained December 3, 2013
UPDATE: On January 9, 2019, Ahmed Douma was sentenced at a retrial to 15 years in prison for rioting and fined $335,000 for his role in a December 2011 protests. His sentence of 25 years was upheld in an appeal in July 2017 but overturned three months later when the Egyptian Court of Cassation ruled in his favor and ordered a retrial.
Ahmed Douma was a leading figure in the pro-democracy revolution that forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down. In December 2013, he was arrested at his home, following a protest organized by the No Military Trials for Civilians campaign in defiance of a new restrictive protest law. The protests was violently dispersed by the police. He was convicted of rioting, inciting violence and attacking security forces. Within days he was sentenced for his participation in illegal protests under the new protest law. In February 2015, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In October 2017, the Egyptian Court of Cassation ruled in favor of Ahmed Douma’s appeal against his lifelong sentence and ordered a retrial. Moreover, in February 2018 the Maadi Court of Misdemeanors reduced Douma’s three-year prison sentence and fine for insulting the judiciary to a fine. On May 24, the Egyptian Court of Cassation also ordered a retrial in this case.