Cairo - Hundreds of thousands of pro-Muslim Brotherhood
students from different Egyptian universities took to the streets
Wednesday to call for the release of 25 of the group's members who
were sentenced to jail on Tuesday.
The outlawed group's third-in-command Khairat al-Shater and senior
leader Hosny Malek, were among those sentenced by a military tribunal
on charges of belonging to a banned group.
Students from various universities across the country staged
protests on Wednesday, carrying banners condemning the court ruling.
A student representative of Al-Azhar University told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa that some 2,000 students had participated in the
demonstration on Wednesday.
Some university professors also joined the protests, stressing in
a press conference that the court ruling would not stop the Muslim
Brothers from achieving their peaceful goals and carrying out reform.
The Supreme Military Court in Hykestep, several kilometres north-
east of Cairo, on Tuesday sentenced al-Shater and Malek to seven
years in prison.
Thirteen Muslim Brotherhood members were sentenced to three years,
while five were given five-year prison terms.
Another five members were sentenced in absentia to five years in
jail. Meanwhile, 15 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were found
innocent.
The high-profile Muslim Brotherhood members are civilians but were
tried in a military court on charges of money laundering, belonging
to and financing a banned group 'that uses terrorism to achieve its
ends,' as well as disrupting public peace and endangering civil
liberties.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative movement that has 'Islam is
the Solution' as its political motto, is always at loggerheads with
Egypt's ruling party.
The group, popular at grassroots level, has succeeded in gaining
88 seats in parliament through fielding candidates as 'independents.'
Although illegal, the group forms the strongest opposition to the
Egyptian government and is active across several provinces.
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