Rights group Amnesty International urged Egypt today to stop the trial of a Facebook user accused of publishing information about Egypt's military without permission.
Amnesty said in a statement that Ahmed Hassan Bassyouni (30), faced up to five years in prison for setting up a group on the the social network about carrying out military service and answering questions about the military.
Egyptian officials could not be reached for comment on the case. Mr Bassyouni appeared before the al-Haram military court on November 24th. The case has been postponed until November 29th, Amnesty said.
"The Egyptian authorities must end the practice of trying civilians before military courts," Amnesty said. "This is an abuse of the Egyptian judicial system and the right to a fair trial. These trials are fundamentally unfair."
It added that Mr Bassyouni, who was arrested on October 30th, seemed to be under trial solely for publishing information readily available in the public domain.
Web activists said separately today that two Egyptian opposition pages on Facebook had been deleted from the Internet ahead of Egypt's parliamentary election on Sunday.
Reuters