Egypt court jails dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah for 5 years

CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

A court in Egypt has sentenced Abdel-Fattah, an icon of its 2011 revolt to five years in prison after a retrial on Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. AP Photo.

An Egyptian court on Feb. 23 sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading dissident in the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak, to five years in prison over an illegal protest.
      
The remaining 24 defendants in the case received sentences ranging from three to 15 years.
      
Abdel Fattah had initially been sentenced to 15 years in jail but a court ordered a retrial.
      
The defendants in the caged dock mockingly applauded when the judge pronounced the verdict, as relatives and supporters in the courtroom chanted "down with military rule".
      
They had been arrested after a November 2014 protest outside parliament in defiance of a law that banned all demonstrations but for those authorised by the police.
      
Three defendants were sentenced to 15 years because they were not present in the court. The rest received three years in prison and all were fined 100,000 pounds (about $13,000).
      
The prosecution alleged that the defendants had assaulted police officers.
      
The case was among the most prominent in a series of trials of secular dissidents who have been jailed along with thousands of Islamists since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
      
The former army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had said on Sunday that he would soon free "youths" wrongfully detained in the crackdown.
      
Three defendants were sentenced to 15 years because they were not present in the court. The rest received three years in prison and all were fined 100,000 pounds (about $13,000).
      
The revolt against Mubarak erupted on January 25, 2011, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across Egypt for 18 days until he stepped down.