Cairo – An Egyptian court jailed prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, a symbol of the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak, for 15 years on Wednesday for assaulting a policeman during an illegal protest.<\/p>\n
On bail since March, he and two co-defendants were arrested immediately after the ruling as they waited to be allowed to enter the makeshift court at a Cairo police academy.<\/p>\n
The court handed down similar sentences to 24 co-defendants, none of whom were in court, after convicting them on charges ranging from participating in an illegal protest to rioting, blocking roads and assaulting policemen, judicial sources said.<\/p>\n
They were also fined \u20ac10 256.<\/p>\n
Because the verdict was pronounced in absentia, Abdel Fattah will be granted a retrial, said his father Ahmed Seif, who is also his lawyer.<\/p>\n
“According to Egyptian law, the ruling is in absentia because the defence lawyers had not presented their case,” Seif told AFP.<\/p>\n
“Alaa was not allowed to enter the court,” he said, denouncing what he said was a hasty ruling issued after just a few hearings.<\/p>\n
“We had not yet watched any of the video evidence” in the case, he said, “nor had the prosecution and defence presented their cases.”<\/p>\n
The sentencing comes just days after the swearing in of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to return Egypt to stability rather than pursue democratic freedoms.<\/p>\n
“Sisi’s presidency will not return [Egypt] to the Mubarak era; it will be worse than the Mubarak regime,” Abdel Fattah himself told AFP in May.<\/p>\n
Since Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July, the authorities have waged a harsh crackdown on Morsi’s supporters as well as the secular opposition.<\/p>\n