Egypt court sentences 5 Morsi supporters to jail
A court in Egypt has handed down long prison sentences to five supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, on charges of taking part in rallies against the incumbent military-backed government in 2014.
On Friday, the court found the defendants guilty of attending demonstrations in support of the Muslim Brotherhood, and sentenced them to 18 years in jail each.
The convicted men were arrested as security forces were dispersing demonstrators during a march in the city of Alexandria last August.
There are reports that one of the men is an eyewitness to the bloody police crackdown on Morsi’s supporters during a sit-in protest in the capital, Cairo, in August 2013, and has appeared in one of the videos obtained by Human Rights Watch about the event.
On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces raided two camps of pro-Morsi protesters in Cairo: one at al-Nahda Square and a larger one at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.
According to the Egyptian Health Ministry, 638 people were killed, of which 595 were civilians and 43 police officers. Nearly 4,000 people were also injured.
On Thursday, a court in the Nile Delta province of Ash Sharqiyah sentenced four students from the University of Zagazig to ten years in jail each for taking part in anti-government protests.
Hundreds of Morsi’s supporters have been given death sentences or jail terms after often speedy mass trials.
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, who was toppled in a July 2013 military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the current president and the then head of the armed forces, was himself given a 20-year prison term last week.
The United Nations has slammed the trials as unprecedented in recent history. Amnesty International, among other rights groups, has denounced the mass trials and the heavy-handed measures taken by the Egyptian government against protesters and Morsi’s supporters.
MP/HSN/SS
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