CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Sunday sentenced 14 people, including human rights activists, to five to 15 years in prison for terrorism, in a trial denounced by human rights groups. human rights.

The latest mass condemnations in Egypt were reported by the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights, one of the country’s leading human rights groups. The suspects were arrested in 2018 amid a massive crackdown on opponents.

Two activist lawyers – Ezzat Ghoniem of the Egyptian Human Rights Coordination and Mohamed Abu Horarira – were each sentenced to 15 years. They were found guilty of joining and funding a terrorist group, which is a euphemism used by the government to refer to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian authorities labeled the fundamentalist group a terrorist group in 2013, the year the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi, who was from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Abu Horarira’s wife, Aisha el-Shater – who is also the daughter of Khairat el-Shater, considered the Brotherhood’s most powerful leader – was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges that also included accusations of spreading false information about alleged abuse by security forces.

Huda Abdel-Moneim, another lawyer and activist, was sentenced to five years in prison.

The court added five years of probation after the end of the prison terms, during which the defendants will not be able to leave the country and will have to report periodically to a police station.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have denounced the trials, saying they constitute “serious violations of the right to a fair trial”.

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