You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Human Rights Groups Blast 18 Month Prison Sentence for Egyptian Activist Sanaa Seif

HeadlineMar 19, 2021

In Egypt, prominent human rights activist Sanaa Seif has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after a court found her guilty of “spreading fake news.” Seif was detained last June and was later accused of making false claims regarding the massive spread of COVID-19 inside Egyptian prisons. Amnesty International called her charges “bogus” and “stemming purely from her peaceful criticism.”

During the revolution in 2011, Sanaa Seif, who was then just 17 years old, spoke with Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous about publishing a newspaper in defiance of rules requiring government permission.

Sanaa Seif: “It’s the perfect timing to push the borders of freedom further. So, we thought, 'Why not? Let's make a newspaper, and let’s not get permission for that. Let’s just sell it in the streets.’ … It’s called Voices of Tahrir, Voices of Liberation. And, well, we thought that the first copy has to be, like — well, each one of us, after this experience of the revolution, has something to say.” 

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top