A Cairo criminal court sentenced on Tuesday 43 defendants to life in prison and nine others to 10 years over several violent incidents committed in 2011, including the destruction of public property, attacking security forces, and setting fire to the Scientific Institute. The court also acquitted 92 others in the same case. The court issued verdicts concerning 145 out of 269 defendants who were granted a retrial after being sentenced to prison in absentia in 2015. The prosecution had charged the defendants with torching the parliament and cabinet buildings in downtown Cairo, blocking highways, attempting to storm the Ministry of Interior and possessing of Molotov cocktails and fire arms. The so-called "cabinet clashes" erupted on 16 December 2011, when a number of political activists and youth demonstrators declared a sit-in outside the cabinet headquarters to protest the appointment of Kamal El-Ganzouri, a Mubarak-era politician, as prime minister by the then-ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The clashes between protesters and security forces continued for eight days, resulting in the death of 18 people and injuring of hundreds.