Egypt sentences 38 individuals to life imprisonment over the 2019 protests
An Egyptian courtroom on Sunday handed down life sentences to 38 individuals, together with a self-exiled businessman whose social media posts helped spark anti-government protests.
Public protests are uncommon in Egypt, the place President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent. However a collection of movies and different social media posts by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Ali, who now lives in Spain, led to sporadic avenue demonstrations in September 2019 over allegations of corruption and different points.
Twenty-three of these sentenced to life in jail had been tried in absentia, together with Ali, in keeping with an Egyptian legal courtroom that handles terrorism-related circumstances.
The courtroom additionally sentenced 44 others, together with kids, to jail phrases starting from 5 to fifteen years on the identical fees. 21 had been acquitted, in keeping with protection lawyer Osama Badawi.
The convicts had been convicted of quite a few fees that included incitement to violence towards safety forces and state establishments. The case arose from the 2019 protests within the port metropolis of Suez, which lies on the mouth of the Suez Canal.
The authorities arrested lots of of individuals on the time in Cairo and throughout the nation. Many have been launched, however others have been placed on trial.
Rights teams have repeatedly criticized such mass sentences in Egypt and known as on the authorities to make sure truthful trials.
The Egyptian authorities has lately imprisoned hundreds of individuals, largely Islamists, but additionally secular activists concerned within the 2011 Arab Spring rebellion that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
(AP)
