Hundreds of MB members detained days after Jan 25 crackdown

Several Muslim Brotherhood members received prison sentences on Monday even as hundreds more were taken into custody, only two days after over 1,000 protesters were arrested by security forces on the third anniversary of the January 25 revolution.

Sixteen Brotherhood members in Cairo received 11-year prison sentences for storming the Basateen Police Station and blocking the Ring Road during the second court session of former President Mohamed Morsi’s trial in early January, according to the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA).

The prosecution also remanded 119 Brotherhood members to 15 days in detention pending investigations into charges of rioting and committing acts of violence against residents of the Mouskey neighborhood on Saturday.

The defendants are also accused of belonging to a banned terrorist group, attacking citizens and public servants, organizing a protest without prior notification of the authorities, illegal assembly, inciting violence and blocking roads.

Three other Brotherhood members were also given 15 days detention after they were arrested in possession of a map of the Attaba metro station.

The defendants are accused of using the map to try to organize a protest near the High Court building in downtown Cairo in violation of the protest law, which bans protests near vital state institutions.

The three Brotherhood members confessed that they had planned to try to organize a protest in support of Morsi near the court building, reported MENA.

Another 57 members of the banned Islamist organization were detained for 15 days pending investigations for protesting on January 24 in the northern city of Mansoura without notifying authorities, MENA reported. They also face charges of belonging to a banned organization.

Brotherhood members had organized protests close the Mansoura stadium. Clashes then broke out between the protesters and area residents.

The Benha prosecution referred another six Brotherhood members to the Misdemeanor Court for protesting without notifying the authorities and attacking police forces while protesting on January 25.

Also on Monday, 34 Brotherhood members were arrested in the southern city of Minya while protesting in violation of the protest law. Among those arrested, five were also implicated in a case of storming police stations following the dispersal of Brotherhood protest camps in Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square in August 2013.