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Egyptian Charged For Threatening Facebook Post

Posted by timothy on from the gotta-be-gentle-with-that-thing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Egyptian Military Prosecution has charged 26-year-old activist and blogger Asmaa Mahfouz for allegedly defaming the country's ruling generals and calling for armed operations against the military and the judiciary. Mahfouz, a prominent activist, was accused of using Facebook to call for the assassinations of Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) members and certain judges."

2 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Newsflash: Freedom of Speech has limits. by intellitech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Freedom of Speech typically does not permit incitement to violence.

    Furthermore, inciting harm to powerful leaders, regardless of motivation or full intent, is probably not wise (and especially so in an unstable nation). And, if you follow through and do so, you best make yourself hard to find, and go completely off grid. Otherwise, you'll likely be caught, and you'll find yourself in a very uncomfortable situation, to say the least.

    Freedom of Speech does not protect all speech. It only permits speech that can hurt people’s feelings, but it does not permit speech that can cause objective harm to people’s bodies, possessions or liberty.

    Source (for more in-depth reading on the subject): http://www.themoralliberal.com/2011/02/18/on-freedom-of-speech-and-incitement-to-violence/

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
    1. Re:Newsflash: Freedom of Speech has limits. by metacell · · Score: 5, Informative

      Have you read the article?

      This was what Mahfouz allegedly wrote, translated from Arabic:
      “If justice is not achieved and the justice system fails us, no-one should feel upset or surprised if armed gangs emerge to carry out assassinations. As long as there is no law and there is no justice, anything can happen, and nobody should be upset.”

      Sounds a little too vague to me to constitute an illegal threat. Or as Mahfouz herself said:
      "There is no truth in these accusations, I was only warning the military council that the absence of justice will lead to chaos."