Egyptian opposition figure sentenced to 5 years in jail

CAIRO

An Egyptian court sentenced on Thursday the former presidential candidate Ayman Nour to five years in prison for "spreading false news that threatens the security of the country", according to a judicial source.

The "New Cairo Misdemeanors Court (eastern Cairo), sentenced in absentia both Ayman Nour and retired Col. Omar Afifi to five years of hard labor and to be slapped with 500 Egyptian pounds ($ 30) for publishing false news that threatens the country's security," the source told Anadolu Agency anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media.

Nour was responsible of the "Al Sharq" satellite channel which was accused of broasdcasting programs "raising rumors and fake news that disturbed the public peace", the source said.

Nour, who opposed the current regime, was a candidate for the presidency in the questioned 2005 presidential election won by former President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled after Jan. 25, 2011’s uprisings.

Nour left Egypt in August 2013 after the twin sit-ins -- held in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares -- that were violently dispersed by Egyptian security forces some six weeks after Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was ousted by Egypt’s powerful military establishment.

Since the July 3, 2013 military coup in Egypt, several Egyptian courts issued rulings based on the same accusations against a number of broadcasters and journalists who opposed the current Egyptian regime with varying prison terms, the most recent of which was against the journalist and broadcaster Osama Ghawish on March 4.

Reporting by Said Fathi; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu