Cairo (CNN) -- Egypt reduced the sentence of a blogger from three years to two on Wednesday, but his supporters remained enraged that he had received any sentence at all.
Maikel Nabil Sanad, the first prisoner of conscience in post-revolutionary Egypt, has been on a hunger strike since August to protest his incarceration for comments he made about the military on Facebook and in his blog.
"Egypt's military rulers are continuing their patterns of abuse," the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday after a military court ordered Sanad to remain imprisoned for two years.
"He is a prisoner of conscience who should never have been prosecuted in the first place," the group's Middle East and North Africa deputy director, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said in a statement.
Several Arab human rights groups issued a joint statement saying the case "offends the right to freedom of expression, and the right to a fair trial."
State-run news agency MENA reported that the reduction in sentence came after an investigation by the military prosecutor. It did not mention complaints about the decision.
It also said Sanad "had been sent to a psychiatric hospital at the request of his lawyer, claiming that (he) is not responsible for his actions," but a report found Sanad's mental state to be fine and allowed the legal process to proceed.
Sanad was arrested March 28 on charges of "insulting the military establishment and spreading false information about the military." He had accused the military of conducting virginity tests on female protesters in Tahrir Square, a charge that a senior military general later admitted was true.
Sanad, 26, had also called for an end to military conscription, suggesting that any military service should be voluntary. Gen. Ismail Etman, head of the Moral Affairs Department of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said in a TV broadcast in April that Sanad had used "inappropriate language" to defame the military.
After his arrest, Sanad was taken to Hikestep military prison camp on the outskirts of Cairo, where he says he was beaten and suffered ill treatment at the hands of military officers and guards. Two weeks later, he was sentenced by a military tribunal to three years in prison and was moved to El Marg civilian prison in Qalubeya governorate, north of Cairo.
Sanad has been limiting his diet to liquids, Amnesty said.
A journalist was present when Sanad met with his family at El Marg prison on October 1, his birthday. He appeared frail, skeletal, pale and drawn and was unable to stand without support.
Sanad's brother, Mark, said Maikel has a heart problem. In November, the prisoner told a reporter he has been granted medical care only when he falls unconscious.
Sanad has refused requests from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces -- the military council running Egypt's government since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak -- to apologize for his writings, Amnesty said.
After the verdict against him, Sanad said to his brother, "I am not better than those who have died or lost their eyes" in protests, Amnesty said.
Sanad was also fined 200 Egyptian pounds and asked to pay 300 pounds in legal fees for a lawyer appointed for him by the military court, which total about $83, Amnesty said. Sanad had refused legal representation in protest over having to face a military court, it said.
The website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information carried a statement Wednesday signed by eight Arab human rights groups saying, "This perpetuation of Mubarak's oppressive policies with his detractors means more deterioration for public freedoms, despite the success of the Egyptian uprising."
CNN's Josh Levs and journalist Shahira Amin contributed to this report.
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