Defence lawyer Ahmed Helmy said they would appeal. "There is no evidence of guilt," he told Reuters.
FIle
picture of Egyptian protesters and Muslim Brotherhood members shouting
slogans against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the government during
a demonstration protesting the government's decision to transfer two
Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, in front of the Press Syndicate in
Cairo, Egypt, April 15, 2016.
An Egyptian court sentenced 152
protesters on Saturday to between two and five years in prison each
after they demonstrated against a decision to transfer two Red Sea
islands to Saudi Arabia, judicial sources and state media said.
Hundreds of police officers were deployed in central Cairo on April 25 to quell protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to hand over Tiran and Sanafir islands.
More than 200 people are being tried in connection with the protests, the judicial sources said.
Of
those sentenced on Saturday, 101 received five-year prison terms and 51
received two-year sentences, judicial sources and the state-owned
al-Ahram newspaper said.
The 152 protesters were
convicted of breaking a law banning people from protesting without first
notifying the Interior Ministry, the judicial sources said.
Defence lawyer Ahmed Helmy said they would appeal. "There is no evidence of guilt," he told Reuters.
The prosecution did not issue any formal statement on the verdicts.
In
similar protests, on April 15, thousands of people had called for "the
fall of the regime", a slogan from the 2011 uprisings which ended Hosni Mubarak's
30-year rule and briefly brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power. More
than 100 people were detained at those protests, security officials said
at the time. Most were later freed without charge, judicial sources
said.
Saudi and Egyptian officials say the islands
belong to the kingdom and were only under Egyptian control because
Riyadh had asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them.
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