A court in Egypt has sentenced one of the nation’s best-known journalists and political activists to six months in prison, in a case that’s drawn condemnation from human rights groups. Sixty-four-year-old Hisham Kassem was convicted on what supporters say are trumped-up charges of slander, defamation and verbal assault on a police officer. Kassem is a co-founder of the Free Current Movement of liberal political parties in Egypt and is seen as a possible challenger to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the upcoming 2024 election. His arrest came after he criticized a member of Egypt’s Presidential Pardon Committee for failing to help grant clemency to Egypt’s thousands of political prisoners.