Marco Girgis

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Marco Girgis is imprisoned for blasphemy.

On June 14, 2021, authorities arrested Girgis for having pictures on his phone deemed to be offensive to Islam. He was reportedly detained a month before formally being interrogated by prosecutors.  During that interrogation, he was reportedly questioned about his alcohol consumption, his relationships with women, and images of a sexual nature found on his phone. When referring Girgis to court, authorities accused him of exploiting religion to promote extremist thoughts, publicly insulting Islam, insulting society’s values towards religions and their rituals, and misusing Facebook.

On January 12, 2022, prosecutors registered Girgis’s case as a misdemeanor under the following articles: “insulting heavenly religions” (Art. 98(f) ECC), “disturbing a religious ceremony” (Art. 160(1) ECC), “publishing a religious text in a way that distorts its meaning” (Art. 161(1) ECC), “assaulting Egyptian family values” (Art. 25 Cyber-Crime Law, 2018), “misusing social media” (Art. 27 Cyber-Crime Law, 2018), and more.

On January 29, 2022, the Cairo Economic Court sentenced Girgis to five years in prison for exploiting religion to spread extremist thoughts, contempt of Islam, and assaulting Egyptian family values. The court found him not guilty of misusing social media.

On September 12, 2022, an appeals branch of the Cairo Economic Court upheld Girgis's sentence.

On March 6, 2024, the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest review court on questions of law, rejected a petition of appeal submitted by Girgis, a Christian who was accused of committing the offense of “contempt of religion.”