Egypt upholds prison sentence against 25 students over protesting

An Egyptian court upheld on Wednesday prison sentences that range from three to five years against 25 Damietta University students on charges that include taking part in a protest in 2014, judicial and legal sources said.

A judicial source told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity that the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appeals court, rejected the appeals filed by 25 students against prison sentenced they had been handed down by another court.

The Court of Cassation’s ruling is final and may not be appealed, the defendants’ lawyer told Anadolu Agency.

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In 2015, the Damietta Criminal Court handed the defendants prison sentences that ranged from three to five years after it found them guilty of protesting, attempting to overthrow the ruling regime, belonging to an illegal organisation (that is the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood) and disrupting public peace.

In December 2013, the Egyptian cabinet listed the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, only months after the military ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi. Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, was the country’s first democratically-elected president. The incumbent president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was Egypt’s defence minister in July 2013 when he led Morsi’s military ouster.

While Egyptian authorities accuse the Brotherhood of terrorism, the group strongly denies the accusations and says that it adheres to peaceful protest against the 2013 coup.