Egypt has sentenced prominent opposition figure Hisham Kassem to six months in prison for defaming a former labour minister.
The verdict was issued in absentia on Wednesday, as Kassem is currently abroad and had not been informed of the new charges.
His lawyer, Nasser Amin, said the case stems from the same remarks that led to Kassem’s previous imprisonment in 2023.
Kassem had completed a six-month prison term in February 2024, which barred him from running in Egypt’s presidential election.
Rights groups and political observers say the repeated prosecutions point to a systematic effort to silence regime critics.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights denounced the ruling as “judicial persecution for political purposes.”
“Retrying Kassem for the same act twice shows a clear intention to punish him for his political activity,” the group stated.
The European Parliament had earlier condemned Kassem’s first prosecution as politically motivated and a threat to democratic expression.
Since taking office in 2014, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government has faced intense scrutiny over its human rights record.
While hundreds of detainees have been released since 2022, watchdogs report a parallel rise in fresh arrests targeting dissidents.