An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading dissident in the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak, to five years in prison over an illegal protest.
The remaining 24 defendants in the case received sentences
ranging from three to 15 years.
The defendants in the caged dock mockingly applauded when
the judge pronounced the verdict, as relatives and supporters in the courtroom
chanted: "Down with military rule".
Once described by the authorities as an "icon of the
revolution" of 2011, Abdel Fattah had initially been sentenced to 15 years
in jail but a court ordered a retrial.
The 32-year-old was among dissidents arrested after a
November 2013 protest outside parliament in defiance of a law that banned all
demonstrations except those authorised by police.
Three defendants were sentenced to 15 years because they
were not present in the court. Another received five years and the rest three.
All were fined 100,000 pounds (about $13,000).
The dissidents had been accused of assaulting police, but it
was unclear if the charge was included in Monday's ruling.
"It's the last act in the circus," Abdel Fattah's
sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter. Another sister, Sanaa, was also jailed for
protesting in a separate trial.
The case was among the most prominent in a series of trials
of secular dissidents who have been jailed along with thousands of Islamists
since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
- 'Innocent youths' -
The former army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
had said on Sunday that he would soon free "youths" wrongfully
detained in the crackdown.
"These are the innocent youths Sisi spoke about in his
address yesterday," Khaled Dawud, a leader of the liberal Constitution
party, said after Monday's verdict. Two of the defendants are party members.
"It is a shame for a country that witnessed two
revolutions to imprison youths for protesting," he said.
Some of the defendants, including Abdel Fattah, had
supported the Islamist's overthrow but turned against the new government as it
expanded its crackdown.
More than 1,000 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed
in protest clashes since, while militant attacks have left dead scores of
policemen and soldiers.
"Sisi put the youths who placed him in the
(presidential) chair in jail," said the mother of one of the defendants.
Ahmed Maher, a leader of the April 6 movement which
spearheaded the revolt against Mubarak, had also been sentenced to three years
in prison on similar charges.
The revolt against Mubarak erupted on January 25, 2011, with
hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across Egypt for 18
days until he stepped down.
Despite their role in the popular uprising, the secular
dissidents have little backing in a country buffeted by turmoil since Mubarak's
overthrow.
Many Egyptians who voted for Sisi in the May 2014 election
say the country needs a firm hand to restore stability and the economy.
The former field marshal is also widely supported in
Egyptian media, which has often tarred his Islamist opposition as terrorists
and secular dissidents as rabble rousers.
A court has even banned the April 6 group.
But jailing dissidents such as Abdel Fattah also conflicts
with Sisi's message that his popularly backed ousting of Morsi was no different
than the 2011 democratic uprising, rather than a counter revolution.
Source: Daily Mail
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