- EGYPT
- April 30, 2015
- 2 minutes read
Junta Court Deals Out Rigorous Imprisonment Terms to 64 University Students in Egypt
The Cairo Criminal Court, in a session held at the Police Academy in Torah (south of Cairo), headed by Judge Salah Rushdie, issued rigorous imprisonment sentences for periods ranging from one to seven years against 64 defendants (including 10 female students), imposing a total fine of two million and 160 thousand Egyptian Pounds (US$284,000), and a 5-year probation order each, in the lawsuit known as "Al-Azhar University Clashes".
The court banned mobile phones, laptops and cameras from the court, even for media professionals assigned to cover the proceedings of the trial.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office had brought against the accused trumped up charges of organizing mob action for deliberate destruction of public and private property at Al-Azhar University, in addition to threatening public officials, acting in a belligerent manner and threatening others with violence, in clashes that took place at the university on December 28, 2013.
Moreover, the prosecution brought against the defendants charges of assaulting arrest officers, in addition to other fabricated charges related to harassing other citizens, willful breach of public security and intentionally setting the Faculty of Commerce building on fire with Molotov cocktails.
