30 Morsi Loyalists Given 3.5 Years In Jail For Illegal Protesting

A Cairo misdemeanor court has sentenced 30 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi to three-and-a-half years in jail for rioting and illegal protesting, according to Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.

The convicted were arrested during clashes between security forces and pro-Morsi protesters last December at the Supreme Constitutional Court in downtown Cairo during one of several trials for the ousted president.

Prosecutors had accused the 30 defendants of illegal protesting, rioting, purposefully destroying public and private property, resisting arrest and belonging to a terrorist organisation with goals of disturbing Egypt’s security and social peace – a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, which was deemed a terrorist group last December by Egyptian interim authorities.

Thousands of pro-Morsi demonstrators have been sentenced in recent months for defying a controversial new protest law issued in November which bans all protests not pre-approved by the police.

Source : Ahram online