CAIRO — An Egyptian court sentenced 230 people, including one of the leading activists behind the country’s 2011 uprising, to life in prison after finding them guilty on Wednesday of taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces later that year.
All were tried in absentia except Ahmed Douma, a secular activist who is already serving a three-year-sentence for breaking a draconian law regulating protests. Thirty other people, all minors, were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Wednesday’s ruling can be appealed.
It is the heaviest sentence yet against the secular activists who spearheaded the mass protests four years ago that forced longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
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Last year, Egypt’s powerful lawyers union criticized Shehata for “disparaging” and “terrorizing” Douma’s defense team after the judge referred five of the team’s six lawyers to prosecutors for investigation.
Shehata accused them on various occasions of disrespecting him. The defense team has subsequently withdrawn from the case and the union backed their decision, instructing all members to boycott Shehata’s court.
“The judge has a clear political stance where he perceives the youth who led the uprising as a bunch of crooks and police as victims,” said Abdel-Aziz.
