An Egyptian court today sentenced 22 Islamists to 10 years in prison and slapped a hefty fine of USD 2600 on them for inciting violence near Qobba presidential palace in 2013.
Seven other juveniles were sentenced to five years in prison for inciting violence near the palace. All sentences were issued in absentia.
The defendants were accused of inciting violence, possessing weapons, protesting without permission, harming public and private building among other charges.
The incident took place in February, 2013 when clashes erupted between residents, some of them from the banned Muslim Brotherhood group and security forces.
Since Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.
Morsi was sentenced to death in May along with Mohamed Badie, the supreme guide of Muslim Brotherhood and over hundred Islamist leaders for a mass prison break during the 2011 revolution which toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
