The Azbakeya Misdemeanour Court handed a sentence of two years' hard labour to 68 people arrested in Downtown Cairo on the third anniversary of the 2011 Revolution. Abdel-Rahman Yousef Ali, the lawyer of two of the defendants, both of which are members of Misr Al-Qawia said the defendants were also sentenced to two additional years of probation, which means the defendants will be required to present themselves at a police station regularly after their release. Ali said the charges levelled against them are assembling, violating the Protest Law, and terrorising citizens. The defendants were convicted for assembling and acquitted on the two other charges. The 68 sentenced on Saturday are part of 79 who were arrested together but were reduced to 68 when 11 of the group were separated from the group and are facing separate trials. Of these 11, seven had to be separated because they are minors and four famous activists including Khaled El-Sayed, Mohamed Al-Sayes, Abd Allah Ibrahim and Nagi Kamel were released and are facing a separate trial. According to lawyer Ali, the 79 arrested include random arrests. This sentencing comes 10 days after another group of 20 arrested on that day were handed sentences by the Maadi Misdemeanour Court. Of the 20, 12 were sentenced to prison and fined EGP 50,000 and eight were fined between EGP 50,000 and EGP 100,000. Both sentenced groups of detainees are among 1,079 people who were arrested on the third anniversary of the 25 January Revolution while demonstrating against the interim government and, in some instances, clashing with security forces. Prosecution charged the Maadi detainees with assembling, protesting without a permit and show of force.
Several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have condemned the conditions of the detainees' incarceration in recent weeks. The Ministry of Interior, however, denied torture allegations made by released detainees.
