230 activists jailed for life for Egypt uprising

AN Egyptian court has sentenced to life imprisonment 230 secular activists from the 2011 revolt against long-time strongman Hosni Mubarak, including leading campaigner Ahmed Douma.

Thirty-nine others, all minors, were jailed for 10 years.

The verdict is the harshest so far against non-Islamist activists amid a crackdown on opponents overseen by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Hundreds of Islamist supporters of Mr Mubarak’s successor, Mohamed Morsi, have been sentenced to death after often speedy trials described by the UN as “unprecedented in recent history”.