Three of Egypt's most prominent human rights activists are due in court this morning, facing criminal charges of “insult, libel, blackmail and abuse of internet services”.

The three are Ahmad Saif al-Islam (of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre), Gamal Eid (of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information – ANHRI) and a well-known blogger, Amr Gharbeia. 

The actual case is a rather bizarre one, brought by judge Abdel Fattah Murad who seems to have a reputation for seeking to put dissidents on trial. In this particular case, it appears that the judge did not take kindly to claims that he plagiarised large portions of the ANHRI's reports in a book that he wrote.

For more details, see Global Voices, Human Rights Watch and 
Reuters AlertNet.

Separately, the Egyptian foreign minister has begun a 
criminal defamation case against Hamdi Kandil, a veteran journalist who is also spokesman for the National Association for Change (recently formed by the potential presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradei). The prosecution results from an article by Kandil published in al-Shourouq on May 3. He could face six months in jail, plus a fine, if convicted.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 22 May 2010.