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Egypt gives jail terms to 74 Muslims Brotherhood supporters

Unidentified Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood defendants stand behind the bars during their trial in Cairo on June 16, 2015. (© AFP)

An Egyptian court has handed down three-year jail terms to over 70 supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, among them three former legislators, on charges of “inciting violence” during the 2013 anti-government protests, Press TV reports.

On Monday, the Sharqiya court in Egypt’s western Nile Delta region passed the sentence on 74 defendants over their involvement in the violence that erupted during the rallies staged in the cities of Bilbeis, Abu Hammad and 10th of Ramadan City against the incumbent government in 2013.

Al-Sayyed Hazin, al-Sayeed Negeida and Moemen Za’aror were the former Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians who received the prison term on Monday.

Two other Muslim Brotherhood members also got 25 years in prison over the same charges.

Meanwhile, a court in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo has acquitted 20 supporters of the country’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, of their violence charges.

Egypt has been struck by violence ever since Morsi, the North African country’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s current president and the then army commander, in July 2013.

Sisi has overseen a crackdown targeting the Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other government critics. The clampdown on Brotherhood supporters has reportedly left over 1,400 people dead.

Cairo also banned the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization following Morsi’s overthrow.

The military-backed government has criminalized street protests, sentenced hundreds to death in mass trials and imprisoned some 40,000 political opponents and their supporters.

On Monday, the UK-based Arab Organization for Human Rights reported that more than 260 political activists have lost their lives in Egyptian custody since Morsi’s ouster due to what is widely described as “medical negligence” on the part of prison authorities.


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