Egypt gives preacher 15-year jail sentence after Syria 'aid visit'

An Egyptian court has sentenced preacher and scholar Mahmoud Shaaban to 15 years in jail, accusing him of joining Syria's opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Shabaan was given the draconian sentence on Thursday for charges of "joining an armed terrorist group outside the country", lawyer Khaled El-Masry said, based on a four-day trip to Syria he made in March 2013.

The court said Shaaban had joined the FSA, an umbrella rebel group fighting to topple the Syrian regime since 2011.

Shaaban said he visited Syria as part of a relief campaign delivering food and medicine to Syrians in need.

Human rights groups have questioned the verdict because the FSA was not designated a terror organisation by Cairo at the time of his visit, reported The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Shabaan acknowledged that he met with members of the FSA during his March 2013 visit.

The prominent Egyptian scholar has long been a vocal critic of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi.

He was part of the Salafi Front, an organisation that opposed Sisi's 2013 coup against Egypt's first democratically-elected leader, Mohammed Morsi.

Shaaban has been in-and-out of Egyptian prisons on various charges since 2014.

He was a scholar at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, one of the world's most prestigious Islamic scholarly institutions, until his suspension that year.

The 50-year-old scholar has suffered from severe ill health while in detention.

Egypt is a prolific jailer of critics, with tens of thousands of people who have criticised Sisi and his government now behind bars.

Many political prisoners in Egypt suffer severe medical neglect.