In another mass trial, the Kafr al-Sheikh Criminal Court sentenced 126 defendants on Sunday to 10 years in prison, fined them LE1,000 each and placed them under probation for five years.
The defendants were convicted of resisting authorities, assaulting police, rioting, possessing weapons and ammunition and spreading chaos in Kafr al-Sheikh after the dispersal of the Brotherhood sit-ins in August.
The court also issued a suspended imprisonment sentence of one year against six other defendants.
The rising frequency of mass trials in the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has been causing concern in the international community. An Egyptian court's previous decision to issue a death sentence against 683 people raised a strong outcry from the international community, with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying that the "mass trials are clearly in breach of international human rights law" and called for Egyptian authorities to "immediately reverse this trend which jeopardizes any prospects for overcoming divisions with society."
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
