The Bab Al-Shaereya Misdemeanour Court acquitted on Monday 169 supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi accused of illegal assembly, violating curfew, disturbing the peace and inciting riots and violence. The charges levelled against the defendants were in relation to violent clashes following the forcible dispersal of two large protest camps supporting the former president. Earlier in May a court in Mansoura acquitted 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were accused of inciting and participating in violence, blocking roads and damaging public and private property in August 2013. Violent clashes occurred around Egypt in August last year following the forcible dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Nahda Square sit-ins. Rights groups estimated that almost 1,500 people were arrested following the dispersals, which, according to official figures, resulted in approximately 600 deaths, although independent counts put the death toll at approximately 1,000.
