The verdict on the appeal of 15 people belonging to Ultras Revolutionary will be announced on 18 May, the Qasr Al-Nil Misdemeanour Court decided on Sunday. The defendants had been sentenced on 22 February to two years of hard labour, an EGP 50,000 fine and two years of probation on charges relating to public assembly. The defendants are part of a group of 33 detainees arrested from a public park in Downtown Cairo during the second day of the constitutional referendum in January. Ahmed Othman, a lawyer who represents the detainees, said: "They were all randomly arrested." The meeting they held was to discuss preparations for the third anniversary of the 2011 revolution. However, Othman said that while some of the defendants were taking part in the meeting, others were just passing by when they were detained. Their charges, according to Othman, include unlawful assembly, assaulting security forces, blocking roads, organising a protest and "thuggery". Mohamed Salah, the brother of one of the defendants, is frustrated with repeated delays, saying he was puzzled the delay lasted as long as a month and five days. "The mothers of the detainees broke down when they heard the decision," Salah said. Sunday's court session was scheduled to be held on Saturday. However, it was postponed because there were too many trials taking in place in Tora Prison, and thus there was no room for the Ultras Revolutionary trial, Othman said. It is not standard procedure that trials are held inside Tora Prison, he said, but trials are being held there as a result of the security situation in the country. The remaining 18 who were arrested, all minors, were acquitted by the Abbaseya Juvenile Court. The Ultras Revolutionary members were arrested while in possession of drums, scarves and clothes with the name of the group on them, but none were in possession of weapons.
