Court sentences 17 people to prison for 2019 protests

At least 17 people are still in prison, facing sentences of up to seven years after a Saturday session in their trial in relation to protests that took place in Suez in 2019.

They are among over 100 people in total who have faced legal proceedings in relation to scattered protests that broke out in September 2019, calling on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to leave office after self-exiled contractor Mohamed Ali’s widely-circulated videos revealed the government’s squandering of public funds.

A ruling was first issued in January last year on the 102 defendants, some of whom were tried in absentia.

All faced similar charges of “endangering public peace, using force and violence against police forces, and assaulting men of authority,” according to legal paperwork reviewed by Mada Masr.

Thirty-three of those convicted in absentia in 2023 requested that their case be relitigated and were detained and held in remand accordingly last year, one of their lawyers told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

The first circuit of the Supreme State Security Emergency Criminal Court issued rulings against them on Saturday. Thirteen of the accused were sentenced to three years in prison, three others received five-year sentences and one a seven-year sentence, according to the Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR).

Another 16 people were acquitted in Saturday’s decision and their cases were referred to another court.

The 2019 protests were sparked in part by calls for demonstrations circulated in online videos published by self-exiled contractor Mohamed Ali, who worked with the Armed Forces on a number of projects and later accused President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Armed Forces of squandering billions on vanity real estate projects. Ali was among those who received a life sentence in absentia in the 2023 ruling.

Protestors were met with violent backlash by riot police around a number of governorates in Cairo, with thousands arrested and interrogated at the time, including a large number from Suez governorate.