Egypt Has Sentenced This Teenager To Eight Years In Prison
Raaga Imara was arrested from her home in January.
Via Facebook
CAIRO — Egyptian authorities have sentenced a 17-year-old girl to eight years in prison, just months after arresting and charging her with “spreading hatred of the regime on Facebook.”
Raaga Imara, a student at a high school in the village of KomAl Noor in Nile Delta, was arrested on Jan. 5th after police came and asked to search her home. “They took Ragaa and her father with them and said they just needed to ask them few questions and there is no need to worry,” said Imara’s mother in an interview with Al-Jazeera “But they released her father only.”
Imara has been sentenced for five years for spreading hatred of the regime on Facebook, and for an additional three years for joining the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned by Egyptian authorities in 2013. “They have decided to put an underage girl in prison with the adult criminals,” said Malek Al-Ghazaly, Imara’s lawyer.
Imara’s family denies that she is a member of the Brotherhood.
The sentencing of Imara is not the first time Egypt has charged teenagers in such cases — in 2014, 18-year old Mahmoud Mohamed was arrested and imprisoned for wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Homeland Without Torture.” Last year, four girls were given a suspended prison sentence for waving balloons with the Rabea hand gesture.
“Ragaa didn't kill or burn or call for vandalization,” said Samah, one of Imara’s friends, in an interview with Buzzfeed News. “All that Ragaa did was express her political opinion on Facebook and even the Facebook page that Ragaa is accused of maintaining isn't calling for violence.” The Facebook page — Students Against The Coup — has over 200,000 “likes” and contains posts and images that are critical of the government.
Samah said that they were against President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi “but that doesn't make us criminal or give them the right to destroy our future.”
Since her arrest, Imara’s friends and supporters have created a hashtag #Ragaa_Omara and tried to tell her story there. The official website of Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has also published Imara’s story with a headline “Secondary student facing Sisi’s repression.”
Imara’s case is reminiscent of the case of “Girls of Alexandria,” in which a court in Alexandria sentenced 11 minor girls for joining Muslim Brotherhood. But the court later suspended its verdict.