Egypt military court sentences Morsi supporters News
Egypt military court sentences Morsi supporters

[JURIST] An Egyptian military court in the northeastern city of Suez on Monday sentenced 20 supporters of former president Mohammed Morsi [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] to jail terms ranging from one to 25 years. The court convicted [World Bulletin report] the 20 individuals of destroying police and army vehicles, rioting, and committing acts of violence in the wake of pro-Morsi protests in August of last year. The military court’s ruling comes on the heels of an October 27 decree by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi [BBC profile] extending the jurisdiction of military courts to crimes involving “vital government and public facilities.” Presidential Decree No. 136 of 2014 [LOC backgrounder] has drawn heavy criticism from Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has argued [HRW report] that the decree “risks militarizing the prosecution of protesters and other government opponents.” On Sunday five Egyptian students accused of rioting at al-Azhar University [official website] were referred [Al Jazeera report] to a military court under the new government policy.

The al-Sisi government has been heavily criticized for its crackdown on protests in the country. Earlier this month envoys from the US and UK strongly criticized the Egyptian government’s human rights record during a session [JURIST report] of the UN Human Rights Council. In late October an Egyptian court ordered [JURIST report] the detention of Alaa Abdel-Fattah [Twitter feed, in Arabic], one of one of Egypt’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, at the start of his retrial for breaking a law on demonstrations. Also in October an Egyptian court sentenced 23 activists to three years in prison for protesting without a permit, an act that violates a law enacted [JURIST reports] in November 2013.