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Mansoura court sentences 155 Morsi supporters to prison

May 23, 2014 at 3:11 pm

A court in the Delta Nile Province of Mansoura has delivered rulings in 13 different cases, in total sentencing 155 supporters of ousted President Mohammad Morsi, including some university students, to terms ranging from one year in prison to life imprisonment, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mesreyoon.

The newspaper reported that the sentences stirred popular anger leading to demonstrations and accusations of prejudice against the judiciary.

The detainees included three young girls who were arrested in November during a protest at Mansoura University to reject the ruling military authority after violent clashes erupted between students and security forces, which resulted in several injuries.

The prosecution accused the girls of inciting riots, destroying public property, disturbing the public peace, using fireworks to terrorise citizens and chanting slogans against the police and army forces.

Jehad, the sister of one of the female defendants, told Al-Masreyoon that her mother fell unconscious after she heard the judge sentencing her daughter to six years in prison. She herself could not help but wonder, “What did my sister and her friends do to be judged like that?” Jehad described the ruling as unfair.

Another female defendant’s sister said that the health of her sister and her friends has significantly deteriorated while in prison, resulting in several fainting spells, especially when the prison administration refuses to transport them to hospital, violating their rights inside the prison and fabricating unfounded charges against them.

The women against the coup movement issued a statement saying that the suffering of detainee Yusra Al-Khatib “was apparent” as she “had breathing difficulty, while Abrar Anani [another detainee] appeared in a state of psychological breakdown and was constantly crying, which led the families to collapse after seeing their daughters without finding out what really happened to them because of the stringent security measures during their visit”.

The newspaper reported that riot police were deployed outside Mansoura University where fellow students organised demonstrations to denounce the court’s ruling against the girls, leading to clashes between them and the security forces who stormed the university firing tear gas in an attempt to disperse the students. The students then torched two police armed vehicles in protest. Five students were arrested during the clashes.

The students against the coup movement in Mansoura University said in a statement that the judgment is void and unfounded because the students did not do anything illegal. The statement added that: “Burning the police’s armed vehicles was only to express the students’ anger after the university was violently stormed and the students’ rights were suppressed using excessive force.”

Hundreds of Egyptians also reportedly expressed their objection to the rulings across the Deqahlia province in dozens of demonstrations, during which the participants raised the Rabaa Al-Adawiya four fingers sign and held up banners of condemnation.

The Hureyet Al-Mansoura movement strongly condemned the ruling and described it as “unfair”. In a statement the movement called upon international organisations and human rights groups to intervene to document and stop the on-going judicial farce against the Egyptian people. The movement affirmed its full solidarity with the female detainees, saying it will not rest until the detainees’ rights and freedoms are restored.

Al-Masreyoon pointed out that Judge Mansour Hamid Saqr, the head of the Court’s Department of Terrorism who issued the sentences, is the same judge who acquitted the killers of demonstrators during the 25 January revolution, as well as acquitted the killers of Hala Abu She’asha’ who was murdered in July of last year during clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents, which the media dubbed as the “Canal” massacre.

In other rulings, the court sentenced in absentia 55 people to life imprisonment, including an 18-year-old school student named Ramy Essam on charges of assaulting ten university security guards. Ahmed Hassan, a friend of Essam, told the newspaper that his friend did not belong to any political entity or party and denounced the charges against him, saying he had a slim figure, and so it is impossible that he could have attacked ten people at one time.

The human rights lawyer and president of the Egyptian Centre for Human Rights, Wael Ghali, said that following 30 June 2013, the police has returned masked with a new face and a new mentality to control the country using the notorious emergency law against civil protest through the anti-demonstrations law. Ghali said the emergency law mentality rules Egypt now, noting that there is a crisis in the Egyptian public prosecution that needs to be changed; the judiciary must stop arresting students randomly and charging them with made up charges like belonging to a banned group and end abuses in prisons.

Below is a list of those who received prison sentences.

The court sentenced the following people to life imprisonment: Bassem Mohamed Mohsen Ali Khreibi, Omar Samir Hassan Suleiman, and Nidal Yasser Al- Waseef, Ramy Essam Mustafa, Khaled Zakaria Abdul Aziz, Amjad Ibrahim Abdel Fattah, Walid Reda Semary, Mohamed Mohamed Helmy Ramadan, Khaled Mohammed Massad Al- Masry, Mohammed Mustafa Arafat, Muhammad Tahir Almeselhy, Taha Al- Salhi Hussein, Al- Sadeeq Mohammed, Al- Sayyed Abdul Rahman Nagdy, Ahmed Mahmoud Algualby, Al- Sayyed Mohamed Abdel- Ghani, Magdy Al- Sayyed Al- Washahi, Ibrahim Hussein Rifai, Anas Mohamed Abdel Ghany, Mohamed Mohamed Shoukry Ibrahim, Ahmed Ibrahim Siraj, Mohamed El Sayed Abdo, Mohamed Ramadan Mahmoud, Mohamed Abdel Aal Haikal, Ahmed Mohammed Darbi, Yasser Othman Saeid , Majid Mohammed Messiry, Al- Sayyed Shawky Al- Adwi, Mohammed Ahmed Abdul- Aziz, Yasser Bahnasawy, Yusuf Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, Mohammed Sherbini Hassan El Sherbini, Husseiny Mohamed Ali Morsi, Al- Sayyed Abdo Mohammed, Magdy Attia Ibrahim, Mohamed Mahmoud Ahmed, Reda Ibrahim Abdel Fattah, Ali Badrawy Hasan, Al- Sayyed Mohamed Abdel Hady Salamah, Saeid Taher Ibrahim, Saif Al-Islam Ashraf, Ahmed Mohammed Maati Husseiny, Abdul Aziz Mohammed Al-Saeed, Mohamed Mohamed Ibrahim, Ibrahim Mohamed Ali Hassan, Abdul Latif Ibrahim El Sherbini and Ibrahim Al- Sayyed Fawzi .

The following people were sentenced to ten years imprisonment: Mohammed Ibrahim, Ibrahim Ibrahim Metwally Badawi, Mahmoud Assal, Ahmed Mohammed Mustafa, Talaat Mohamed Talaat, Ismail Younis Mohammed, Assem Mohamed Assem, Imad Judah Mustafa, Fathy Abdel Azim Abdel -Gawad, Mustafa Mahmoud Youssef, Mohammed Bakr Osman, Abdul Haq Younis, Mohamed Abdel Rahim Azab, Zekr- Allah Al- Naby, Salah Fathi Ali, Magdy Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Syed Ahmed Abdel Fattah, Ahmed Abdul Hamid, Nabil Ahmed Abdul Muttalib, Mohamed Adel Omar, Ali Ahmed Mohammed, Khalid Mohamed Yousry, Adel Youssef Abdel-Salam, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Khalid Mahmoud Ramadan, Mahmoud Abdel -Hamid, Ala Al-Din Muhammad, Adel Abdul Ghani, Muhammad Taha Hamid, Essam El-Shahat, Osama Ahmed Salama, Mahmoud Hafez, Mossad Abu Alfutooh and Hany Abdel Fattah.

The following people were sentenced to seven years in prison: Mustafa Mahmoud Abdel Nabi Abdullah, Omar Mahmoud Abdel Nabi Abdullah, Mohamed Heshmat Abdel Fattah Hassanein, Mohammed Ibrahim Ibrahim, Ihab Tawfiq Ahmed Abul Khair, Sayyed Saeed Shourbagy, Ahmed Ahmed Hassan, Mohamed Abdel Ghany Mahmoud, Mukhtar Abdu Mahmoud, Ibrahim Atef Musbah, Ahmed Mohammed Nagdy and Mustafa Abdul Hamdi Deeb.

The following people were sentenced to five years in prison: Yasser Mohammed Awad, Ahmad Abdul Rab Al- Naby, Ahmed Shawki Ibrahim, Ahmad Moheb Abdul Aziz, Khaled Abdel-Fattah, Mohammad Ramadan, Ahmed Adel Abu Atta, Ahmed Ayman Nasr Abu- Yusuf, Adel Mohamed Fahmy, Bakr Muhammad Nagdy, Ahmed Taha, Ahmad Shaban, Ahmad Amer Haji, Omar Mohammed Ismail Bassiouni, Mohammed Ibrahim Salama, Muhammad Abu Abdullah Iraqi, Waheed Mohamed Fekry Sherbini, Abdullah Hamdy Mohamed and Sayyed Mohamed El Sayyed.

The following people were sentenced to three years in prison: Anas Helmy Mohamed Jabr, Sherif Mohamed Demerdash Mustafa, Mohamed Hamouda Abdel Razek, and Mohammad Mostafa El-Sayed, Kamal Lotfy Kamal, Mohamed Taye’ Mohamed Sayed Ahmed, Abdullah Abu Al-Fadl Muhammad, Abdul Syed Hamid Ahmed Mansour, Yusra Al-Khatib, Abdel Nasser Mustafa Abdul Majeed Aburia, Nasser Sayed Ramy Kenawy, Hisham Seyam and Moheb el Khodari.

And finally, the court sentenced the following people to two years in prison: Menatalla Mustafa, Abrar Anani and Ibrahim Reda Ahmed Ibrahim. The court sentenced to one year imprisonment with labour for: Hisham Magdy Ahmed Abdel- Wahab, Imad Eddine Attia Abu Zaid Hassanein, Mustafa Jamal El-Borei, Mohammed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali, Sayyed Mohamed Mohamed Hassanein and Ahmed Hassanein Hafez.