The law also provided for five years’ imprisonment for publishing research without government permission.2 The government had not issued the executive regulations to enable it to start implementing the law by the end of the year. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSEMBLY Between January and May, courts sentenced at least 15 journalists to prison terms ranging from three months to five years on charges related solely to their writing, including defamation and the publication of what the authorities deemed “false information”. On 25 September a court sentenced former presidential candidate and prominent human rights lawyer Khaled Ali to three months’ imprisonment on charges of “violating public decency” in relation to a photograph showing him celebrating a court ruling ordering a halt to the handover of two islands to Saudi Arabia.3 From May onwards, the authorities blocked at least 434 websites, including those of independent newspapers such as Mada Masr and human rights organizations such as the Arab Network for Human Rights Information. In March the Minister of Justice referred two judges, Hisham Raouf and Assem Abdelgabar, to a disciplinary hearing for participating in a workshop organized by an Egyptian human rights group to draft a law against torture. Security forces arrested at least 240 political activists and protesters between April and September on charges relating to online posts the authorities considered “insulting” to the President or for participating in unauthorized protests. In April, a criminal court sentenced lawyer and activist Mohamed Ramadan to 10 years’ imprisonment in his absence under the draconian Counter-terrorism Law.4 In December, an Alexandrian court sentenced human rights lawyer Mahinour El-Masry to two years’ imprisonment for her peaceful participation in a protest. Amnesty International Report 2017/18 ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS Security forces continued to arrest hundreds of people based on their membership or perceived membership of the Muslim Brotherhood, rounding them up from their homes or places of work or, in one case, from a holiday resort. The authorities used prolonged pre-trial detention, often for periods of more than two years, as means to punish dissidents. In October a judge renewed the pre-trial detention of human rights defender Hisham Gaafar, despite him having been detained for more than the two-year limit under Egyptian law. Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, had already spent two years in pre-trial detention when his trial started in August 2015. Throughout 2017 he remained in detention alongside 738 codefendants as their trial continued. Upon release, political activists were often required to serve probation periods of up to 12 hours a day in a local police station, amounting to arbitrary deprivation of liberty. EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Forces of the Ministry of the Interior continued to subject to enforced disappearance and extrajudicially execute people suspected of engaging in political violence. According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, security forces subjected at least 165 people to enforced disappearance between January and August for periods ranging from seven to 30 days. The Ministry of the Interior claimed that more than 120 people were shot dead in an exchange of fire with security forces during the year. However, in many of these cases the people killed were already in state custody after having been subjected to enforced disappearance. In May the Ministry announced the death of schoolteacher Mohamed Abdelsatar “in an exchange of fire with the police”. However, his colleagues had witnessed his arrest a month earlier from his workplace. In April, a leaked video showed military forces in North Sinai extrajudicially 153