With attention in Egypt focused mainly on the rigged election, the jailing of a 30-year-old man for posting "defence secrets" on Facebook has passed without much notice.

Ahmed Hassan Bassyouni, whose case I highlighted here last week, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined LE500 ($85) by a military court on Tuesday.

Bassyouni does not appear to have been a political activist, nor were the "secrets" he supposedly revealed an Egyptian version of Wikileaks. According to his lawyer, he merely set up a Facebook group to guide young Egyptians through the paperwork for military service.

He was arrested on October 30 after giving an interview on Egyptian radio about his activities.

Referring to the sentence, his lawyer told AFP: "This is a message that publishing anything about the armed forces, whether good or bad, won't be allowed."

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 2 Dec 2010.