Profile: Ahmed Douma, Egyptian Political Activist and Blogger

Posted On 9 January 2019

Number of times this article was read : 125

A leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution was handed 15 years in prison on Wednesday after a retrial, a judicial source told AFP. Ahmed Douma was arrested in 2013 on charges of clashing with security forces in Cairo two years earlier, and received a 25-year prison sentence in 2015. Here is his profile:

Douma in during the "Day of Anger", 25 January 2011

Ahmed Douma (: أحمد دومة  pronounced ; born 11 September 1988) is an Egyptian activist and blogger, who has been arrested under each consecutive Egyptian government in recent years. He is a member of the . Having been in prison since 2013, he was released on 19 August 2023 following a presidential pardon.

Political activism and arrests

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A graffiti image of Douma on a wall near the

In February 2009, Ahmed Douma, then a student at , was arrested at the border to the , after he had entered it with a group of anti-war activists who wanted to express their solidarity with the people. He was tried before a military court for illegally crossing the border and was sentenced to one year in prison. During his transport to the prison and during interrogations there, Douma was tortured and threatened with the use of false confessions to obtain further convictions against him.

In January 2012, he was detained and charged with inciting violence against the army and encouraging attacks on public property, following the in December 2011. During these clashes, 12 people were killed and 815 were injured, when police and military forces cracked down on a sit-in outside the Cabinet office in , which was organized by activists protesting against the appointment of as prime minister by the .

In April 2013, Douma was arrested after calling president a killer and a criminal, and on 3 June Douma was convicted to six months in prison for insulting the president. However, Douma appealed the verdict, and on 6 July another court ordered his release without bail.

On 3 December 2013, Douma was arrested at his home, following a protest organized by the No Military Trials for Civilians campaign in defiance of a new restrictive protest law, which was violently dispersed by the police. On 22 December, he was sentenced, together with and , to three years in prison with hard labour and a fine of LE50,000 for his participation in protests illegal under the new protest law. In an attempt to reverse the verdict, Douma joined a hunger strike with other detainees who were imprisoned under the new protest law. However, he had to end it due to his deteriorating health.

The verdict was condemned by several Egyptian organisations, as well as by the and the . On 23 December, the organized a demonstration in Cairo in solidarity with the three activists. has censured the court conviction sentencing Maher, Mohamed Adel, and Douma to three years in prison and a fine of LE50,000 and maintains that Interim President should issue these and other detained individuals a pardon. The has expressed solidarity with the detainees and their families and requested that the interim President Adly Mansour issue a pardon to Ahmed Maher, Mohammed Adel, and Ahmed Douma, as well as to Loay Abdel Rahman, Omar Hussein, Islam Ahmed, and Nasser Ibrahim.

On 4 February 2015, the sentenced Douma to life imprisonment and fined him LE17 million.

In January 2019, his sentence for participating in the 2011 protests against the administration of President was reduced to 15 years.

On 3 December 2022, Douma completed a decade in . His family raised multiple requests for a presidential pardon and reconsideration of the activist's case. The family renewed their call in 2022. On 24 November 2022, the also called for the Egyptian authorities to immediately release the unjustly detained prisoners, including Douma. Dozens of human rights organizations and groups, including , MENA Rights Group, (DAWN), and others, also urged the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Douma.

Douma was pardoned by Egyptian president on 19 August 2023.

Writing

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Douma wrote about his incarceration experiences, dreams, and aspirations in his poetry. He published his poetry collection Soutak Talee (Your Voice Is Heard) in 2012 with Diwan publishing house, where he shared his revolutionary poetry and his experiences with several youth and reformist movements in Egypt. He documented the dates and locations during his imprisonment at the end of this poem, in which he told his story of imprisonment and oppression.

Also, his poetry collection Curly was printed and published during the 2021 through EL Maraya publishing house. However, security officials barged into the publishing house section during the fair and asked them to take Douma's poetry collection down.

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The North Africa Journal is a leading English-language publication focused on North Africa. The Journal covers primarily the Maghreb region and expands its general coverage to the Sahel, Egypt, and beyond, when events in those regions affect the broader North Africa geography. The Journal does not have any affiliation with any institution and has been independent since its founding in 1996. Our position is to always bring our best analysis of events affecting the region, and remain as neutral as humanly possible. Our coverage is not limited to one single topic, but ranges from economic and political affairs, to security, defense, social and environmental issues. We rely on our full staff analysts and editors to bring you best-in-class analysis. We also work with sister company MEA Risk LLC, to leverage the presence on the ground of a solid network of contributors and experts. Information on MEA Risk can be found at www.MEA-Risk.com.

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