EGYPT-COURT DEMONSTRATION Activists gather outside Egyptian court to denounce sentences

Record ID: 149620

  • Title: EGYPT-COURT DEMONSTRATION Activists gather outside Egyptian court to denounce sentences
  • Date: 31st May 2015
  • Summary: ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (MAY 31, 2015) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** ALEXANDRIA COURT VARIOUS OF ACTIVISTS WAITING INSIDE COURT MAN CARRYING A SIGN THAT READS IN ARABIC "WE DON'T LIKE PRISONS, BUT WE AREN'T SCARED OF THEM" VARIOUS OF ACTIVISTS INSIDE COURT ACTIVISTS CHANTING IN ARABIC "TOMORROW, SIR, THE REVOLUTION WILL BEGIN, AND LEAVE ON YOUR SHOULDERS
  • Embargoed: 15th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACNIH0W6FFZA3LGDJSTFS2BPQM
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A group of activists gathered outside an Alexandria court on Sunday (May 31) to denounce sentences they said were politicised.
    The Alexandria misdemeanor court sentenced activist and human rights lawyer Mahinour al-Masry, journalist Youssef Shaaban and Loay al-Qahwagy and 7 others in absentia to one year and three months in prison for raiding al-Raml police station in Alexandria in December 2013.
    The defendants were initially sentenced to two years and fined to the value of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($650), but they successfully appealed the sentences.
    Marwa Shaaban, the wife of journalist and defendant Youssef Shaaban, said, "I expected this and we all did because simply the regime has not changed. What used to happen during the Brotherhood is happening under Sisi and even more and more horrifying. The number of detainees is larger and we aren't surprised by this and are not even waiting for any type of justice, because this has become normal, all the time there are unfair charges. And maybe the sentences that Youssef and Mahi received are shorter from many others which are way worse, like the death sentences, and life sentences and the five years. Really, we removed a regime only to get another that's more dictatorial. Sisi's rule is a dictatorship - a regime that kills and murders and humiliates and arrest and detain people. There are more than 40,000 detainees in prisons," she said.
    The case dates back to March of 2013 when the defendants say a police officer at said police station attacked a lawyer. After hearing news of the attack, political activists and lawyers went to the station to ask for an apology, but instead were arrested and charged with raiding it.
    Activist Rasha Azzab said, "We are living in a farce on a general level, not only because of cases like this, but because of the return of torture and the high prices of goods and so on. It's as if they are punishing the people who came out on January 25 (2011 revolution) and January 28. The message is clear, we understand it and you (the government) also understand that we understand it," she said.
    The defendants have also been charged with attacking security personnel and disrupting public order.
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