A group of 21 women, seven of whom were minors, were sentenced to jail and juvenile detention terms of 11 years on Wednesday for staging a protest outside a school in Egypt. The women arrested last month in Alexandria were supporters of Mr Morsi and members of the 7am Club which staged protests before school started. Images of the defendants, many of them teenage girls, sitting in the dock in white prison uniforms and hijabs were circulated on social media. The armys claim that it had the backing of an overwhelming majority of the Egyptian population for its removal of Mr Morsi was contradicted, meanwhile, by a poll by the Zogby Research organisation saying it was opposed by 51 per cent of those surveyed, with 46 in favour. They were handed down shortly after the interim military-backed regime made the highly symbolic decision to order the arrest of two of the liberal protest leaders most closely associated with the revolution against President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The public prosecutors order to detain Ahmed Maher, whose April 6 movement was the most prominent organisation involved in coordinating the 2011 Tahrir Square demonstrations, and Alaa Abdulfatah, a prominent blogger, suggests that having imprisoned large sections of the Brotherhood leadership it may turn against liberal oppositionists more fiercely. Their jail terms were compared to the seven years handed down to two Alexandria policemen accused of beating to death Khaled Said, a young businessman whose bloodied image and tribute Facebook page became the revolutionaries greatest rallying points in 2011. The policemen are currently bailed pending appeal. Another police officer who was caught in the act of shooting protesters in the eyes with birdshot in late 2011 was sentenced to just three years. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/10479221/Egypt-jails-women-protesters-for-11-years.html
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 23:42:29 +0000