Mohammed Hegazy, the first Egyptian citizen to attempt to change his legal religious identity from Muslim to Christian, was sentenced to a year in prison on one charge and acquitted of two other charges at a Dec. 28 hearing in the Misdemeanor Court in Minya, Upper Egypt.
According to Mideast Christian News, MCN, Hegazy’s lawyer Karam Ghobrial “expressed his dismay at the verdict” and he was “unable to get a copy of the judgment to know the charge, for which the court sentenced the defendant to one year in prison.”
Ghobrial told MCN he will appeal the imprisonment ruling, especially since two of the charges were dropped.
Hegazy has already spent a year in jail awaiting the verdict after being separately sentenced to five years in prison for “illegally filming anti-Christian demonstrations” in Upper Egypt.
World Watch Monitor reported the details of his case earlier this month; at the time his lawyer said Hegazy’s arrest is also “linked to leaving Islam.”
