Egyptian activist Hicham Kassem during his trial in Maadi, Egypt, Sept. 16, 2023. (Credit: Hisham Kassem Supporters Facebook Page/Handout via Reuters)
Egyptian opposition figure Hisham Kassem was released on Tuesday after serving a six-month prison sentence that effectively stopped him from contesting a December presidential election, a human rights group said.
"Publisher and opposition politician Hisham Kassem is back home after completing his six-month prison sentence," the head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Hossam Bahgat, said on X, formerly Twitter.
His conviction for defaming a former minister and insulting a public official prevented him from challenging President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Dec. 10-12 election, which the incumbent ended up winning with 89.6 percent of the vote.
The European Parliament described his prosecution as "politically motivated."
Human Rights Watch said it was part of "a campaign of arrests [and] intimidation" that "effectively prevented any meaningful competition" in the election.
Another opposition politician, Ahmed al-Tantawi, was handed a one-year jail term that could be suspended on bail this month, after being convicted of election campaign irregularities.
His campaign manager was handed the same sentence, and 21 supporters were sentenced to a year in prison with hard labor.
Tantawi is set to appeal his verdict in May, while a court has scheduled his team's appeal for next month.
Human rights groups say Cairo holds tens of thousands of political prisoners, many of them in brutal conditions.
Egyptian opposition figure Hisham Kassem was released on Tuesday after serving a six-month prison sentence that effectively stopped him from contesting a December presidential election, a human rights group said.
"Publisher and opposition politician Hisham Kassem is back home after completing his six-month prison sentence," the head of the Egyptian...