An Egyptian court jailed 23 young activists for three years yesterday for violating a law banning protests without a permit, judicial sources said, in a case rights group say reflects an increasingly repressive climate in the country.
The activists were arrested in June while demonstrating against the law. Passed last year after the army toppled elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, the law tightly restricts protests – the vehicle Egyptians used to topple autocrat President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and to express discontent with Mursi in 2013.
Four days after their arrest, the public prosecutor swiftly ordered the defendants to trial. In addition to the charge of violating the protest law, the defendants were convicted of blocking off a road during the demonstration, damaging public property and using violence “with the aim of terrorizing citizens.” Rights groups have called the charges baseless.
Amnesty International deemed it another example of a series of “show-trials” based on scant evidence. The group said in a September statement that such trials appear intended to warn citizens against defying government policies. A security crackdown launched after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood initially targeted Islamists demanding the reinstatement of Mursi.