Ahmed Douma
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Ahmed Douma ( ar, أحمد دومة  ; born 11 September 1988 ) is a prominent Egyptian activist and blogger, who has famously been arrested under each consecutive Egyptian government in recent years. He is a member of the
Egyptian Popular Current The Egyptian Popular Current ( ') is a movement in Egypt, created after the 2012 presidential elections by former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi. The movement was formed on 21 September 2012. The movement formed the Popular Current Party ...
.


Political activism and arrests

In February 2009, Ahmed Douma, then a student at
Tanta University Tanta University is an Egyptian university in the city of Tanta, Al Gharbiyah governorate, Egypt. The university is under the direct scientific supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded first in 1962 as a branch from the ...
, was arrested at the border to the
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
, after he had entered it with a group of anti-war activists who wanted to express their solidarity with the
Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
people. He was tried before a military court for illegally crossing the border and sentenced to one year in prison. During his transport to the prison and during interrogations there, he 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 Cabinet clashes 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
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
, which was organized by activists protesting against the appointment of
Kamal Ganzouri Kamal Ganzouri ( ar, كمال الجنزورى, ‎; 12 January 1933 – 31 March 2021) was an Egyptian economist who served as the Prime Minister of Egypt from 7 December 2011 to 24 July 2012. He previously served as prime minister from 1996 ...
as prime minister by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. In April 2013, Ahmed Douma was arrested after calling President Morsi a killer and a criminal, and on 3 June he 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, Ahmed 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 Ahmed Maher and Mohammed Adel, 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 he 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
Human Rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
organisations as well as by the
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP) is the chief co-ordinator and representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the European Union (EU). The position is currently held ...
Catherine Ashton and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
Foreign Office. On 23 December, the
Road of the Revolution Front A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...
organized a demonstration in Cairo in solidarity with the three activists.
Hamdeen Sabahi Hamdeen Sabahi ( ar, حمدين صباحى, Ḥamdīn Ṣabāḥī, ; born 5 July 1954) is an Egyptian politician, journalist and poet. He is currently the leader of the Egyptian Popular Current and a co-leader of the National Salvation Front. ...
has censured the court conviction sentencing Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel, and Ahmed Douma to three years in prison and a fine of LE50,000 and maintains that Interim President
Adly Mansour Adly Mahmoud Mansour ( ar, عدلى محمود منصور  ; born 23 December 1945) is an Egyptian judge and politician who served as the president (or chief justice) of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. He also served as interim ...
should issue these and other detained individuals a pardon. The Constitution Party 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 Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Ahmed 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
Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...
was reduced to 15 years. On 3 December 2022, Ahmed Douma completed a decade in
arbitrary detention Arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention are the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law ...
. 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
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
also called for the Egyptian authorities to immediately release the unjustly detained prisoners, including Douma. Dozens of human rights organizations and groups, including Amnesty International, MENA Rights Group, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), and others, also urged the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Douma.


Writing

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 by Diwan publishing house, where he shared his revolutionary poetry and his experiences with several youth and reformist movements in Egypt. Douma 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 Cairo International Book Fair via 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.


See also

* Ahmed Maher * Mohammed Adel *
Alaa Abd El-Fattah Alaa Ahmed Seif Abd-El Fattah ( ar, علاء أحمد سيف الإسلام عبد الفتاح, ; born 18 November 1981), known professionally as Alaa Abd El-Fattah ( ar, علاء عبد الفتاح), is an Egyptian-British blogger, software d ...
*
Kefaya Kefaya ( arz, كفاية ''kefāya'', , "enough") is the unofficial moniker of the Egyptian Movement for Change ( ar, الحركة المصرية من أجل التغيير ''el-Haraka el-Masreyya men agl el-Taghyeer''), a grassroots coalition ...
* Ahmed Harara


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douma, Ahmed Egyptian democracy activists Egyptian dissidents Egyptian bloggers People of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 Living people 1985 births