Alwaght-A court of the military-backed regime in Egypt has sentenced 64 activists to two years in prison for taking part in anti-government protests last month.
They were convicted of breaking a 2013 law that effectively bans street protests and disrupting traffic. Nearly 300 people have been arrested and charged for taking part in demonstrations on April 15 and 25 against Egypt's surprise decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
An Egyptian defense lawyer Mohammed Abdel-Aziz says that of the 64, 31 were sentenced in absentia. The sentences were issued Saturday.
Abdel-Aziz, whose Al-Haqanya group represents five of the case's defendants, says the conviction will be appealed.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has faced mounting criticism over the islands decision, and the protests were the largest since he came to power in 2014 through coup orchestrated by the country’s military.
A government decision this month to cede control to Saudi Arabia of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, near South Sinai, sparked protests on 15 April, with thousands of demonstrators protesting all over the North African State. The El-Sisi regime is reportedly receiving USD 20 billion from the Saudi monarchy in return for giving up the sovereignty of the two strategic islands.
El-Sissi is witnessing the most vocal and angry objection to his rule since he took power. All over the country, Egyptians are gathering and chanting some of the same slogans from the January 2011 revolution—such as “the people want the fall of the regime” and “down with military rule.”
