A lawyer from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a member of the defense team of poet and writer Ahmed Douma, submitted a request on Monday, October 19, 2026, to the Assistant Minister of Interior for the Community Protection Sector, for Douma’s conditional release after he served more than six months of the one-year prison sentence issued against him.
According to EIPR, the request was based on Douma having served more than half of his sentence, his good conduct, the absence of any disciplinary penalties against him, his fulfillment of the financial obligations ordered by the court, and the fact that his release poses no threat to public security. The request cited Article 52 of the Prison Regulation Law, which permits conditional release after half the term is served; Article 56 of the Constitution, which defines prisons as places of reform and rehabilitation; and Article 86 of the internal prison regulations, which permits conditional release in state security offenses after consulting the relevant security agencies.
Authorities arrested Douma on Monday, April 6, 2026, and the Supreme State Security Prosecution held him in pretrial detention in Case No. 4246 of 2026, over a newspaper article and a post on his personal account in which he addressed his earlier experience in Badr 1 prison. He was then referred to trial in Case No. 4894 of 2026, Fifth Settlement Misdemeanors, on charges of publishing and broadcasting false news that could disturb public security, spread fear among people, and harm the public interest, under Articles 80(d) and 102 bis of the Penal Code. On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, the court sentenced him to one year in prison with labor, effective immediately, fined him EGP 200 ($4.14), and ordered him to pay court costs. The New Cairo Misdemeanor Appeals Court then upheld the ruling on Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Appeal No. 6560 of 2026.
In its request, EIPR explained that conditional release does not end the sentence but changes how it is served, and that the sentence is considered complete only when the remaining term passes without the release being revoked. The Committee to Protect Journalists and partner organizations had called for Douma’s release ahead of the appeal ruling.
Photo: Sarah Carr via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
