The 20-year old Egyptian blogger, Ahmed Mostafa, who faced military trial for allegedly “publishing false information on his blog a year ago, on February 15, 2009” has been released, reports Bikya Masr.

The engineering student was detained on February 25 after being informed of a communiqué filed against him by the Egyptian military academy for "disseminating false information about the armed forces," and “tarnishing the military’s image,” states the Associated Press.

Mostafa was given a week to issue an official apology for his 'false' corruption accusation, with implications that the case could be revived should he fail to comply.

In his condemned “What happened to you, oh nation?” blog, Mostafa wrote about the corruption and alleged favoritism in the recruiting process at the country’s military academy. He claimed that a teacher’s son was pushed out of the academy in favor of a candidate from a wealthier background capable of making financial contributions to the institute, reports the BBC, citing Christian Fraser, the BBC correspondent in Cairo.

Following Mostafa’s arrest on February 25, the military prosecutor conducted a swift investigation, reports Bikya Masr. The defendant was placed in detention pending further findings, and the case was transferred to the military court after three days for a quick trial.

It is the first time in the country’s history that a military court was convened for a blogger, says Agence France Presse, considering that other bloggers have been sentenced to prison by other courts, or silenced without being tried.

"This should not have gone to a military court,” said the director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Gamal Eid, adding that such trials are typically "unfair and speedy."

Under Egypt’s emergency laws, the military court is allowed to detain civilians and delay their trials indefinitely. The law has been in effect since Islamic militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981, writes Marwa Awad for Reuters.

According to Mostafa’s bother Hossam, security officials met with Mostafa prior to the arrest, forcing him to provide the password for his blog, reports Awad. "They changed the password and barred him from accessing his blog," Hossam said, but did not delete the blog in question.

The first hearing took place on March 1 and was adjourned until March 7 due to the defense lawyers insisting on more time to examine all the evidence from the case, including the prosecution’s investigation report.

However, Eid told Al-Masry Al-Youm that “the court has refused to give the lawyers full access to the documents and accused them of leaking information about the case to the press.”

Some evidence was labeled “confidential,” said Eid before adding, “After all, this is a military court and its judges are policemen. It is not a fair trial.”

Mohamed Mahmoud, an ANHRI lawyer who was present at the hearing, voiced a similar concern. "We were subjected to strict and unreasonable security measures, as well as the court insisting on the presence of assigned defense, though we are Ahmed's official defense,” says Mahmoud.

Mostafa’s arrest has drawn criticism from international human rights organizations. According to the Cairo-based rights group's website, "ANHRI stresses the illegitimacy of criminal prosecutions in publication cases, not to mention military trials that lack basic fairness conditions."

ANHRI later welcomed the release decision as “a wise step” and hoped the “Egyptian government will take other positive steps and release bloggers imprisoned under emergency law, Mossad Abu Fagr and Hani Nazeer, so that justice is served," reports the Agence France Presse.

As Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said, the trial was "designed to intimidate anyone who dares to criticize the army,” the deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, Joe Stork, accused the Egyptian government of not abiding to its commitment at the Human Rights Council review in Geneva.

Stork insisted, "No civilian should be tried before a military court, and no government that claims to respect human rights should be prosecuting someone solely for writing about corruption."

While Amnesty International considered Mostafa to be “a prisoner of conscience” and had called for his liberation, Mostafa posted a blog entry following his release advising other bloggers to cross-check their information before publishing it.