A Cairo court sentenced a Coptic Christian citizen this week to five years in prison over blasphemy, among other related charges, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

Marco Gerges was found guilty of ‘misusing religion in promoting extremist thoughts, contempt of Islamic religion, and violating family values’, the statement added.

Gerges had been arrested in June 2021 for having improper images on his mobile phone that were considered to be offensive to Islam.

A source at EIPR said that Gerges is merely an ordinary citizen with no affiliation to any entity.

State security prosecution subsequently interrogated Gerges over his relationships and other personal matters; and he was faced with charges of slandering Islam on social media, which he denied, according to EIPR.

“The verdict against Gerges is one of a series of prosecutions as well as persecutions of citizens within the context of restricting freedom of expression…resorting to unconstitutional and overbroad laws such as blasphemy or that of the violation of family and social values,” EIPR noted in its statement.

“Such [approaches] open the door for misusing these accusations in breaching freedom of expression and thought, belief and creativity,” the statement concluded.

Christians in Egypt represent the biggest minority rated about 10 percent of the total population of about 101 million.