63 Brotherhood supporters given 3-year jail terms

Egyptian authorities have handed jail terms to 63 Muslim Brotherhood supporters over participation in anti-government protests in the capital, Cairo.

The defendants were sentenced to three years in prison each on Thursday on alleged charges of rioting, thuggery and weapons possession during protests late last year.

They were also ordered to pay a fine of $7,200 per person.

It was the biggest number of Brotherhood supporters sentenced in one case since the army-installed authorities launched a heavy crackdown on the Islamic movement following the ouster of former president, Mohamed Morsi, last July.

In a separate case, another 24 Brotherhood supporters were also sentenced to three years in prison each over clashes around the same time in a different part of the capital.

They were accused of rioting, illegal gathering, attacking the police and belonging to an “armed terrorist gang.”

Egypt has been the scene of almost daily protests since last July, when the military deposed Morsi – the country’s first democratically-elected president – after a year in office.

The military and its appointed interim government soon launched a brutal crackdown on the protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been leading calls for Morsi’s reinstatement.

The clampdown peaked last December after the interim government listed the Brotherhood as a “terrorist organization,” accusing it of involvement in a bomb attack that killed 16 people in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura.

The categorization authorizes the government to intensify the crackdown on the group’s leaders as well as their families.