Egyptian businessman sentenced to life in prison for protesting against president

According to state media, an Egyptian military court on Sunday sentenced a president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi critic who lives in Spain to live in jail for calling for anti-government protests.

The political situation in Egypt was shaken up in 2019 when recordings Mohamed Ali posted on social media accusing Sisi and the military elite of corruption went viral. Mohamed Ali is a construction contractor and aspiring actor.

Millions of people saw the videos he posted from Spain, where he has lived for a while, and they momentarily incited a wave of small-scale but loud rallies by hundreds of individuals in the country of North Africa.

Following the demonstrations, rights organizations said that the Egyptian government detained 4,000 people, among them prominent professors, activists, and attorneys.

According to official media, the court sentenced Ali and his 37 co-accused to life in prison, while a number of other defendants received sentences ranging from five to fifteen years.

These courts frequently hear cases involving "terrorist" offenses, and their verdicts cannot be challenged.

According to local media, Ali, 48, was added to Egypt's "terrorist" blacklist, preventing him from leaving the country and freezing his assets.

Rights advocates claim Cairo uses travel restrictions to stop opposition politicians from leaving the nation.

Later this month, Egypt will commemorate 12 years since the 2011 uprising that led to the overthrow of longtime tyrant Hosni Mubarak as part of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Massive demonstrations against the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 resulted in Sisi, the then-army chief, ousting him.

Later that year, a law was established that essentially outlawed all protests save for those that were permitted by law enforcement.

The next year, Sisi was elected president as a result of a subsequent crackdown that initially targeted Islamists before expanding to restrict all public expression of opposition.