A verdict in the trial of a blogger accused of insulting Egypt's armed forces has been postponed on Wednesday, a day after Human Rights Watch called for the case to be dropped, the defendant's lawyer has told AFP.
Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and a lawyer representing Maikel Nabil, told AFP the military tribunal would now hand down the verdict on Sunday.
In a statement on Tuesday, HRW said Egypt's armed forces "should drop all charges against (Nabil) for his Internet posts critical of the military."
"This trial sets a dangerous precedent at a time when Egypt is trying to transition away from the abuses of the Mubarak era," HRW's Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson was quoted as saying.
Nabil could receive up to three years in prison, the New York-based rights groups said.
This is the first trial of a blogger by a military court since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assumed control after president Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February following a wave of anti-regime protests.
Military police arrested Nabil, a campaigner against forced conscription, on 28 March after he wrote blogs criticizing the military, HRW said.
His posts and comments on social networking website Facebook were used as evidence against him in the trial, HRW quoted his lawyers as saying.
Last year, a military court sentenced another blogger to six months in prison for publishing "military secrets" after he posted instructions on Facebook on how to enlist in the armed forces, his lawyers said at the time.
Another blogger was acquitted after he published a post on alleged patronage in a military academy.
The military, which pledged to hand power to a civilian government once parliamentary and presidential elections are held, has tried and sentenced dozens of people in the past weeks for crimes such as robbery and assault.
The trials are speedy and can result in harsh sentences according to rights groups.
