CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court sentenced a blogger to three years in jail with hard labor on Saturday for "spreading false news" after he said about 45 percent of married Egyptian women have the readiness for "immorality" and to cheat on their husbands. 
 
 The court said that Taymour el-Sobki's comments on a talk show in December would harm the public peace and damage the public interest. He can still appeal the sentence. 
 
 El-Sobky faced a backlash from other TV talk show hosts and civilians who filed complaints to public prosecutors accusing him of insulting Egyptian women. 
 
 Public prosecutors, who have the right to vet such complaints and to choose which ones to pursue, charged el-Sobky and took him to court on these grounds. 
 
 "We can criticize or reject the comments he made, but he did not commit a crime," said prominent rights lawyer Gamal Eid. 
 
 Under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, authorities have waged crackdowns against Islamists, then left-wing activists and finally against broader dissent. But lately, many activists say harassment and threats have broadened even to people with no connection to politics or activism. 
 
 Artists, writers, and intellectuals have expressed fear over the future of free speech and creativity in Egypt following a two-year sentence handed by an appeals court last month against author Ahmed Naji for violating "public modesty" through publishing an excerpt of his novel containing a sex scene in an Egyptian literary magazine. 
 
 Naji's detention in a Cairo prison following the sentencing hit Egypt's artistic and intellectual community hard as it followed recent sentences handed to the TV presenter and researcher Islam Behery, who is serving a year-long prison sentence for "defaming religious symbols" and the writer Fatma Naoot, who has appealed a three-year sentence for defaming Islam. 
 
 Eid said el-Sobki's case has similar attributes with the expulsion from parliament of Tawfiq Okasha earlier this month as a response to him meeting Israel's ambassador to Egypt. 
 
 "The two issues seem to be unrelated, but they both share the same attribute .... Okasha did not break the law," said Eid. "The two incidents were handled outside the realm of the law." 
 
 The cases, Eid said, are an example of how "it is not the law, but it is pressure and public opinion, and rallying around someone, that acquits or incriminates him." 
 
 "Unfortunately these are not isolated cases," said Eid. "They come in the context of that the state itself violates the law day and night, and implements it haphazardly." ||||| Story highlights He allegedly said that 30% of women are unfaithful, according to state media 
 
 Video of his comments appeared on social media, prompting a public outcry 
 
 (CNN) An Egyptian man was sentenced to three years in prison for saying some of the nation's married women are unfaithful, state media reported. 
 
 In addition to prison time, Taymour el-Sobky will also get hard labor. 
 
 He made the assertion during a television show in December, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported Saturday. 
 
 "Thirty percent of women have a readiness for immorality ... but cannot find someone to encourage them," he said, according to the paper. 
 
 Video clips of his comments appeared on social media last month, prompting a public outcry that led to his arrest, according to the newspaper. 
 
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– Watch what you say about the fidelity of the women of Egypt. That's a lesson Taymour el-Sobky is learning the hard way. The blogger, who runs the Facebook page "The Diary of a Suffering Man," has been sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor by a court in Giza, CNN reports. According to the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, el-Sobky said, "Thirty percent of women have a readiness for immorality ... but cannot find someone to encourage them," while appearing on a TV show in December. A flood of complaints followed the comments, and a public prosecutor charged el-Sobky for "spreading false news," the AP reports. El-Sobky, who says his comments were taken out of context, has apologized. An appeal is scheduled for March 30. Rights lawyer Gamal Eid says el-Sobky's case highlights how public opinion, rather than the rule of law, controls the legal system in Egypt. Whatever one may think of el-Sobky's comments, "he did not commit a crime," Eid says, adding that the "government violates the law day and night, and implements it haphazardly." More often these days, the government is cracking down on artists, writers, and intellectuals, the AP notes. Ahmed Naji, for instance, received two years in prison for violating "public modesty" after an excerpt from his novel that contained a sex scene was published in a literary magazine. Also, a TV presenter is serving a year in prison for "defaming religious symbols," and another writer has appealed a three-year sentence for defaming Islam.