| | Date: May 6, 2019 | Source: The Daily Star | | Egypt jails dozens over 2013 Brotherhood protest | Agence France Presse
CAIRO: An Egyptian court Sunday jailed 56 people for taking part in a 2013 protest by Muslim Brotherhood supporters that was brutally dispersed by the authorities, a judicial source said.
Security forces violently broke up two protest sites in Cairo and neighboring Giza on Aug. 14, 2013, in a bloody operation that Human Rights Watch says killed more than 800 demonstrators.
Supporters of then-Islamist President Mohammad Morsi had camped out for weeks after the army ousted him from power in the face of huge demonstrations.
The judicial source said one of those sentenced Sunday was given a life sentence, 25 years under Egyptian law, for participating in the gathering of the “Muslim Brotherhood terrorists” at Nahda Square.
Fifty-two others were handed 15-year jail terms and three more given sentences of between one and five years.
The defendants were accused by state prosecutors of “endangering the lives of citizens, resisting police forces responsible for dispersing the rally, premeditated murder and carrying unlicensed weapons.”
Egypt’s courts have sentenced to death or lengthy jail terms hundreds of people after speedy mass trials, including Morsi and several leaders of his Brotherhood movement.
Many have appealed and won retrials but 26 executions have been carried out. | |
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