The Alexandria Criminal Court postponed on Saturday the retrial of Al-Masry Al-Youm photojournalist Mahmoud Nasr and five other defendants to 3 November.
The six defendants were convicted of blocking the Alexandria railway road in January 2013.
Hossam Fallah, a member of the Revolutionary Socialists movement, said that the defendants were protesting the death of 19 police conscripts in a train crash in Badrasheen. “They were arrested for a couple of hours and then released. After a year and a half, they discovered they were sentenced to 10 years in absentia.”
They were not informed of the trial or the sentence, Fallah added.
Nasr was arrested last September by the army on suspicion of filming in a military zone.
“His background check revealed that he was sentenced in absentia to 10 years,” said Fallah.
Following, Nasr and five other defendants demanded a retrial.
Nasr has reportedly joined a mass hunger strike campaign in detention. Scores of activist, journalists, and students have recently embarked on hunger strikes calling for amendments to the Protest Law and the release of detainees and prisoners jailed under this controversial legislation.
According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) eleven journalists were killed while working in Egypt between 28 January 2011 and 28 March 2014.
