Egypt jails blogger for five years

Alaa Abdel Fattah, an activist bloggr who played an essential part in the 2011 uprisings has been jailed for five years for breaking protest laws. Fattah was originally given a 15-year prison sentence, but was released last year on bail.

Fattah became popular as a blogger and pro-democracy campaigner against former President Hosni Mubarak.

In other news, Al-Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have appeared in an Egyptian court for a brief hearing before their retrial, which was due to take place later today. The men were freed on bail earlier this month after more than a year behind bars. Their case has now been postponed to 8 March, after a short hearing.

The journalists are facing accusations of spreading false information and of helping the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Australian Peter Greste, the third journalist in the case, was freed on 1 February and deported to Australia.