Maikel Nabil Sanad
Maikel Nabil SanadIsrael news photo: Maikel Nabil Sanad blog

An Egyptian blogger has been jailed for reporting news of civil law violations by army officers during and after the country's recent revolution.

Maikel Nabil, 26, had been held for the past several weeks under house arrest. On Monday he was sentenced to three years in prison for “insulting” the country's military. 

In his English-language biography on his blog, the self-proclaimed pacifist writes that he founded the “No for Compulsory Military Service Movement” in April 2009, and began a campaign to demand the right to be exempt from military service as a conscientous objector. The Cairo resident received his exemption on 20 November 2010, but “was arrested several times because of my political activity.” He is also a graduate of the Veterinary Medicine College, Assiut University.

Nabil, who also writes in Hebrew and Arabic on the blog, explained in an English-language article entitled In Which Side is Israel Standing? that the security agenda in the Jewish State "decides who the prime minister will be." 

The blogger also observes that he himself has been turned down for a visa to visit Israel. “So, the lesson which Israel wants me to learn, that I have to be an enemy of Israel to be welcomed in Israel, just as the terrorists whom Israel speaks with in claimed peace talks, and yet there are people asking: Why those talks usually fail?”

Nabil contends in the article that “what's happening in Jerusalem decides what will happen in Egypt.”

“Egyptian justice failed in the case of Maikel Nabil,” commented the Democracy Review in a statement posted to its website on Monday.

“This [sentencing] was done behind closed doors and without lawyers present... it is a sad day for rule of law in Egypt. If Nabil could not be freed with so much support from Human Rights organizations, what hope is there for all the others who were arrested and face lonely fights for freedom?”

According to the report, Nabil and his lawyers were told Sunday that sentencing was postponed till Tuesday. He was then sentenced in absentia by the military court. Nabil was immediately taken to Tora prison, where he is currently being held. His lawyers were informed of the sentencing and incarceration Monday morning.