Egypt cops 'beat up' students
2008-04-16 14:34
Cairo - Baton-wielding Egyptian riot police clashed with about 500 Cairo University students belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood as they protested against the use of military trials for civilians on Wednesday.
"About 500 people were demonstrating and the police began to beat us up," Ahmed Ali, a student affiliated with the opposition movement said.
"Five students were lightly injured in the clashes," he said. Hundreds of black-clad riot police surrounded the university campus in downtown Cairo even after the demonstration was over.
The Muslim Brotherhood students had organised a demonstration to protest the use of military trials for civilians after 25 members of the group were sentenced on Tuesday to up to 10 years behind bars.
25 Brotherhood members sentenced
The Brotherhood's number three Khayrat al-Shater and fellow leader Hassan Malek were jailed for seven years while five others were sentenced in absentia to 10 years in a crackdown, which targeted the group's funding, freezing its assets and arresting prominent businessmen associated with the movement.
The 18 others were jailed for between three and five years, including another two in absentia, after a repeatedly delayed verdict that had no right of appeal because it was issued by a military tribunal.
Egyptian authorities accused the Muslim Brotherhood, which controlled a fifth of the seats in parliament, of seeking to revive its underground military wing and of eventually trying to topple the regime.
The fact that the case was tried in a military court had fed accusations that the politically charged trial was part of a broader policy of silencing the powerful group.
"The sentences handed down against 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood today are a subversion of justice in Egypt," Amnesty International spokesperson Nicole Choueiry told AFP from London.
"This trial has been clearly politically motivated from the outset."