BBC News - Morsi supporters sentenced to life over Egypt unrest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23949657

Morsi supporters sentenced to life over Egypt unrest

3 September 2013 Last updated at 14:54 GMT

The military has launched a campaign against Mohammed Morsi's supporters

Eleven supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi have been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of attacking the army.

The men were accused of wounding soldiers, sabotaging armoured vehicles and burning churches during riots in the port city of Suez last month.

Forty-five others received five-year sentences, while five were acquitted.

The riots followed a deadly crackdown by security forces on two pro-Morsi protest camps in the capital, Cairo.

Hundreds of people, mostly members of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, were killed when the sit-ins outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque and at Nahda Square were cleared on 14 August.

The unrest in Suez, 140km (87 miles) to the east of Cairo, on 14 and 16 August left more than 30 dead.

It is not clear if those convicted on Tuesday are Brotherhood members. But if they are, the verdicts would be the first affecting the Islamist group since the military launched a campaign against it after ousting Mr Morsi.

TV channels closed

State prosecutors announced on 1 September that after almost two months in detention at a secret location, Mr Morsi would stand trial for inciting murder and violence.

The charges relates to the deaths of at least seven people during clashes between opposition protesters and Brotherhood supporters outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.

Fourteen other senior Brotherhood figures, including Mohammed al-Beltagi and Essam al-Erian, will be tried on the same charge.

Also on Tuesday, a court in Cairo ordered the closure of four television stations, including the Brotherhood's Ahrar 25 TV and al-Jazeera's Egyptian affiliate Mubasher Misr, saying they were operating illegally.

The stations were seen by the authorities as being sympathetic to the Brotherhood.

The group called for protests demanding the reinstatement of Mr Morsi in the capital on Tuesday under the slogan: "The coup is terrorism."

The state news agency, Mena, said security forces had sealed off some roads in the capital. Military vehicles were reported to be blocking the entrances to the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque and Tahrir Square, the centre of the anti-government protests which triggered the Egyptian revolution in 2011.

The resumption of national rail services after 17 days was also delayed.