More Trouble in Cairo

Egypt continues to catch headlines for the wrong reasons. Noha El-Hennawy, at Babylon and Beyond, reports on Thursday’s protests in the streets of Cairo. Activists gathered in opposition to the conviction of a pro-Palestinian journalist who was sentenced to two years in prison. Magdy Ahmed Hussein was convicted for illegally crossing into the Gaza Strip during the recent Israeli operation. Hussein was tried in a military court, where the right to appeal is denied.

This conviction comes on the heels of the Egyptian-German blogger Philip Rizk’s release after four days of detention. Rizk spoke with the Associated Press on Thursday, saying that he “…was blindfolded the entire time, was wearing handcuffs the entire time except for a few occasions”. Rizk says he was not hurt, only interrogated and threatened. The government has taken Rizk’s blog down and has also taken possesion of his electronic equipment and pieces of his thesis research.