Egypt sentences 230 to life for 2011 uprising

Secular activists found guilty for spearheading protests that led to Mubarak’s resignation

CAIRO— A court in Egypt 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 former president Hosni Mubarak to step down.

After hearing the verdict, Douma clapped his hands in mock applause, bringing an angry riposte from Judge Mohammed Nagi Shehata.

“Are we in Tahrir Square here or what? You are clapping to me? Show respect in the session . . . Don’t say anything else or I’ll give you three more years,” he said.

“I respect myself,” replied Douma, who is also serving a three-year sentence issued by the same judge for contempt of court.

The Egyptian judge has courted controversy in the past by sentencing three Al Jazeera journalists to at least seven years in jail last year and issuing a mass death sentence on Monday in connection to the killing of more than a dozen policemen in 2013.

“The harshness of the verdict is not a surprise to us, as the judge is driven by personal and political motives that shed light on the degree of impartiality of the Egyptian judiciary,” said Douma’s lawyer, Mohammed Abdel-Aziz.

“All talk about the independence of the judiciary is baseless.”

Abdel-Aziz and the rest of Douma’s defence team boycotted sessions after accusing Shehata of “terrorizing” them and not responding to any of their demands.

The case is connected to Cairo clashes in December 2011 that left some 40 people dead.

They erupted after young activists took to the streets to protest the post-Mubarak political transition overseen by the military.

The clashes caught world attention when riot police were filmed beating, stripping and kicking female demonstrators in Tahrir Square.

The violence also laid bare the deep divisions between secular and Islamist activists, who had briefly united to topple Mubarak.