Egypt has sentenced more than a dozen of Muslim Brotherhood members to jail terms over their alleged role in protests against the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
On Saturday, the defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for attacking reporters during anti-government protests nearly a year ago.
The latest ruling is seen as part of a massive crackdown on supporters of Morsi. Dozens of Brotherhood members have already been tried and sentenced to prison for their roles in anti-government protests.
Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since last July when the army ousted the country’s first democratically elected president Morsi, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the parliament. It also appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mahmoud Mansour as the new interim president.
The interim government has launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi’s supporters and arrested thousands of Brotherhood members, including the party’s senior leaders.
On December 25, the military-appointed government listed the movement as a “terrorist” organization over alleged involvement in a deadly bombing, without investigating or providing any evidence.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International criticized Egyptian authorities for using an “unprecedented scale” of violence against protesters and dealing “a series of damaging blows to human rights.”
According to the UK-based rights group, 1,400 people have been killed in the political violence since Morsi’s ouster, “most of them due to excessive force used by security forces.”
GJH/NN/AS
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