Egypt court sentences girls to prison over pro-Morsi rallies

PanARMENIAN.Net - A court in Egypt has sentenced 21 female supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi to 11 years in prison, according to BBC news.

They were found guilty of multiple charges, including belonging to a terrorist group, obstructing traffic, sabotage and using force at a protest in the city of Alexandria last month. Seven are under 18 years of age and will be sent to a juvenile prison.

The court also sentenced six Muslim Brotherhood leaders to 15 years in prison for inciting the protest. One report said the men had been tried in absentia.

Some 17 clerics linked to the Islamist movement, to which Morsi belongs, were meanwhile arrested in the Nile Delta town of Gharbiya, the state news agency Mena reported. They are accused of using mosques and sermons to incite unrest against the army and police.

Mena also said that eight people would be put on trial on charges of abducting and torturing a lawyer during the 2011 uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

The defendants include Mahmoud al-Khodeiry, a former judge close to the Brotherhood, Osama Yassin, who served as youth minister under Morsi, and Ahmed Mansour, a presenter for al-Jazeera television.

Since the army deposed Morsi in July, thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members and other Islamists have been detained in a crackdown the interim authorities have portrayed as a struggle against "terrorism".

Hundreds of people have also been killed in clashes with security forces since security forces cleared two sit-ins in Cairo by people demanding Morsi's reinstatement in August.