[2] Between the time of the 2008 strike in Mahalla al-Kubra and the onset of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Mohemmad Adel enrolled in a training program directed by the Center for Non-Violent Action and Strategies, an entity founded by the Serbian pro-democracy youth movement Otpor!.
[3] Mohammed Adel was tried by a Cairo misdemeanor court on charges of violating a controversial protest law and for allegedly assaulting police officers.
[5][6] Various Egyptian and international human rights organizations have condemned the trial as a symptom of a growing crackdown on pro-democracy and civil society activism; during the course of the trial, Amnesty International stated that the charges against Adel and other defendants "may arise solely from their opposition activism".
[7] Emad Hamdi, a member of the Egyptian Popular Current, condemned the verdict against Mohammed Adel, unfavorably juxtaposing the acquittals and light sentences given to Mubarak-era criminals with those being issued against revolutionary and democratic activists.
However, shortly before the verdict was announced, he was forcibly seized by police during the course of a raid on the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights.