Ramses Protesters In Mid-July Get Two-Year Sentences

The misdemeanor court in Bab El She`ria in central Cairo handed down sentences of two years imprisonment with labor for 138 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi who were arrested in clashes in the Ramses area in mid-July.

The court set an LE 5000 bail for a release-pending-appeal order and referred one of the defendants to a juvenile court.

Clashes erupted on 15 July in downtown Cairo and Giza between police forces and crowds of Morsi supporters demanding to reinstate him.

Prosecutors accused the group of attempting murders, resisting arrest, possessing weapons without license, violence and destruction of public and private facilities, disrupting public transportation and incitement of violence.

Clashes broke out after police forces fired teargas at protesters to clear the Six of October Bridge above downtown’s Ramses Street, both of which were blocked by demonstrations.

Egypt’s interior ministry said that it “had to use” teargas on the grounds that protesters blocked traffic in the area and accused them of throwing rocks at passing cars.

Clashes continued after midnight on Ramses Street and the bridge above it. Tires burned and the police intensified its presence on the bridge with at least eight trucks and many troops.

Many were injured among security forces as well as supporters of Morsi who were protesting the popularly-backed military ouster of Morsi on 3 July as part of a political roadmap following mass protests against him.

The Brotherhood and other Islamist political supporters reject what it describes as a coup d’etat against Morsi’s legitimacy.

Source : Ahram