CAIRO — While the ink on Egypt’s new counterterrorism law was still drying, security forces had already begun rounding up suspects to prosecute with it. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued the law Aug. 15. Exactly one week later, on Aug. 22, police in the southern governorate of Sohag arrested three men for allegedly posting Islamic State propaganda on Facebook.

The men, the youngest of whom is 16, face charges of propagating jihadist ideology and communicating with a terrorist network, crimes punishable by 10 years in prison at best — and the death penalty at worst — under Article 12 of the new law.

Two days later, the Interior Ministry announced that it had apprehended another two alleged terrorists in Alexandria. Abdullah and Karim, both 18, were arrested Aug. 24 for curating the “Ultras Freedom Eagles” Facebook page. According to a statement published Aug. 24 by the Interior Ministry, the Facebook page — referred to in the statement as a Brotherhood affiliate — called for violating the protest law and revolting against state institutions, the police and the military.

The two students face charges of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood (which the Egyptian government designated a terrorist organization in 2013), participating in illegal demonstrations and attacking security forces. These are all crimes punishable with life in prison or a death sentence, Fatma Serag, director of the Legal Unit for the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression, told Al-Monitor.