Ahmed Douma(01 of06)
Open Image ModalDetained since Dec. 3, 2013; sentenced to life in prison on Feb. 4, 2015.
Ahmed Douma is an Egyptian political activist who gained notoriety for his involvement in the country\'s uprising against President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and his arrests under the consecutive regimes of Mubarak, the military leadership, President Mohammed Morsi and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
He was arrested on Jan. 12, 2012, on charges of inciting violence against the army and encouraging attacks on public property during protests in Cairo. He was also detained on April 30, 2013, for calling the Muslim Brotherhood\'s Morsi a killer and a criminal. He was arrested again on Dec. 3, 2013, and sentenced on Dec. 22, 2013, to three years in prison under charges of participating in demonstrations against a new law that required people to notify authorities at least three days before staging protests.
On Feb. 4, 2015, alongside 228 others, Douma was sentenced to life in prison and fined 17 million Egyptian pounds ($2 million) on charges of rioting, inciting violence and attacking security forces during cabinet clashes in late 2011. When the judge read his verdict, Douma laughed and clapped from his courtroom cage, Reuters reported. (credit:Amr Dalsh / Reuters)
Samhy Mostafa(02 of06)
Open Image ModalImprisoned since Aug. 25, 2013; sentenced to life imprisonment on April 11, 2015.
Journalist Samhy Mostafa is the co-founder of online news outlet Rassd News Network. He was arrested in Cairo on Aug. 23, 2013, alongside Abdullah al-Fakharany, Mohamed al-Adly and Mohamed Salah Soltan. Mostafa was charged with \"spreading chaos\" and \"spreading false information\" for the Muslim Brotherhood about the August 2013 clashes, and sentenced to life imprisonment on April 11, 2015.
Mostafa and his friends reportedly underwent harsh treatment in prison. When they were first imprisoned, Soltan, Mostafa, al-Fakharany and al-Adly were forced to run in between two rows of officers, \"Soul Train style, only we were greeted with batons, whips and belts,\" according to a testimony Soltan made to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2015.
\"We want to go home already,\" Mostafa tweeted on Jan. 16. (credit:Samhy Mostafa/Twitter)
Alaa Abdel Fattah(03 of06)
Open Image ModalDetained for three months in 2014; currently serving a five-year sentence that began on Feb. 23, 2015.
Pro-democracy blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah was a prominent figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolt, known for campaigning against military trials for civilians. He was detained for two months in 2011 for alleged involvement in violent protests, and during that time his first child was born.
Abdel Fattah was arrested again in 2013 during a protest outside the Muslim Brotherhood\'s headquarters, but later acquitted of charges of inciting violence. He was also jailed on June 11, 2014, alongside at least 22 others, for violating protest laws, and was later sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison. Abdel Fattah was released on bail later that year, following the death of his father. He was retried on Feb. 23, 2015, in a Cairo courtroom and given a reduced sentence of five years in prison on charges of organizing an illegal protest and assaulting a policeman.
In prison, Abdel Fattah described his conditions as “bearable” but said authorities were “intransigent” and did not let him read any books, as a means of isolation. \"I have nothing to say: no hopes, no dreams, no fears, no warnings, no insights; nothing, absolutely nothing,\" Abdel Fattah wrote in an article for The Guardian marking the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution. (credit:Mostafa el-Shemy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Mahmoud Abou Zeid ("Shawkan")(04 of06)
Open Image ModalImprisoned since Aug.14, 2013; formal charges have yet to be made.
Freelance photographer Mahmoud Abou Zeid, also known as Shawkan, was arrested along with U.S. journalist Mike Giglio and French photojournalist Louis Jammes on Aug. 14, 2013, while covering clashes between security forces and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. He was then beaten and tortured by policemen, and held without charge in prison, Zeid wrote in a March 5, 2015, letter marking his 600th day of imprisonment.
Zeid was diagnosed with hepatitis C before his arrest, and the photographer\'s family said he was being denied medication in prison, according to Amnesty International.
\"After more than 850 days in the black hole without fairness and justice, I am lost in limbo,\" Zeid wrote in a December 2015 letter from prison.
There have still not been any charges made against Zeid. His first court session, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 12, 2015, was postponed to Feb. 6, 2016, according to the Free Shawkan campaign. (credit:Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Mahienour el-Massry(05 of06)
Open Image ModalDetained since May 20, 2014; sentenced to 15 months in prison on May 31, 2015.
On March 29, 2013, outspoken human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Massry was arrested outside el-Raml Police Station in Alexandria while staging a peaceful sit-in protest in solidarity with lawyers who said the station\'s officers had verbally and physically assaulted them, according to Amnesty International. Among the protesters were journalist Youssef Shaaban and political activist Loay el-Kahwagy, who were also arrested.
El-Massry, Shaaban and el-Kahwagy -- along with seven other people -- were sentenced in February 2015 to two years\' imprisonment and charged with a string of offenses, including \"protesting without authorization,\" \"damaging police property,\" \"attacking security forces\" and \"threatening public security,\" per Amnesty International. The prison sentence was later reduced to 15 months on May 31, 2015, according to Amnesty International.
Earlier, on Jan. 2, 2014, el-Massry was charged on a separate case with \"protesting without a permit\" and \"assaulting security forces,\" and sentenced to two years\' imprisonment in absentia, the International Federation for Human Rights reported. The lawyer filed a demurrer against the ruling, which an Alexandrian misdemeanor court rejected on May 20, per the International Federation for Human Rights. El-Massry was immediately detained after the hearing.
The January 2014 case was brought against el-Massry following her participation in a Dec. 2, 2013, protest denouncing police officers for the 2010 deadly beating of Khaled Said, who was killed by two officers on a public street after Said refused to show police his ID during a random raid. (The two police officers were sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of manslaughter in October 2011, and jailed for ten years in a 2014 retrial.)
In an October 2015 Facebook post, el-Massry\'s sister noted that the lawyer lived in \"atrocious\" conditions in prison, with some 27 prisoners crammed into a room 5 by 6 meters (16 by 20 feet) large, and in which women were forced to sleep on top of each other.
El-Massry was named the 2014 recipient of the Ludovic Trarieux prize, an annual award for lawyers recognizing their contributions to international human rights. She was the second person to receive the award in prison, after Nelson Mandela. (credit:Mohamed Mahmoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Islam Behery(06 of06)
Open Image ModalImprisoned since Dec. 28, 2015.
Egyptian authorities sentenced TV presenter Islam Behery to one year in prison for “contempt of religion” and defaming Islam on his show “With Islam” in late 2015, a reduction of a previous five-year sentence. In June 2015, he was acquitted of similar blasphemy charges that were also made in connection to his TV show, which is currently suspended. “With Islam” offered an understanding of Islamic doctrine and called into question the credibility of some of the sources of Prophet Muhammad\'s sayings, government-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported. Behery has reportedly maintained that his only intention was to revitalize religious discourse and protect Islamic theology from the influence of ultra-conservative jihadist interpretations.
\"Egypt is the country of injustice,\" Behery posted in Arabic on his Facebook page after his sentencing. (credit:Islam Behery/Twitter)