Sentencing of ‘7 am protesters’ condemned

Political forces have condemned the 11 year prison sentences handed down Wednesday to 21 women and girls, convicted of offences while protesting in support of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

The Sidi Gaber Misdemeanours Court in Alexandria sentenced 14 members of the “7 am Movement” formed after Morsi's removal on July 3 to 11 years in prison. Seven minors aged 15-17 were remanded to a youth facility for 11 years. 

The court ruling states that on October 31 2013 members of the 7 am Movement — so called because its members protested in the early morning — assembled on a street in Alexandria where they blocked traffic and threw stones at passersby, resulting in damage to the entrance of a residential building and endangering human life. 

Twenty-one of the group apprehended were charged with illegal assembly, thuggery, vandalism of private property and possession of objects intended to be used to attack civilians. Seven men, currently at large, were accused of inciting the female defendants to commit these crimes. 

The adult defendants were handed down a sentence of six years for illegal assembly, four years for thuggery, one month for vandalism and a one month suspended sentence and fine of LE500 for possession of objects intended to be used to attack civilians. 

The male defendants were convicted in absentia and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

There has been widespread condemnation of the sentences, which in some quarters are viewed as disproportionate and politically driven.

Former member of parliament Mostafa al-Naggar said on his Twitter account that the sentences amount to the “suicide of justice in Egypt.” 

“Anyone with an active conscience, or with any semblance of human conscience left, will not be able to sleep at night as long as he sees injustice towards girls behind bars," al-Naggar said.

In a statement issued Wednesday Nader Bakkar, a member of the Salafi Nour Party questioned why the group had been convicted while “criminals who admit to throwing molotov cocktails at the armed forces” escape justice. Bakkar asked, “whether protesting has itself become a crime.” 

Ahmed Abdel-Hamid, a member of Al-Dawaa Al-Salafeyya and member of the dissolved Shura Council said that the verdict “is a return to the era of dark repression” and threatens to “increase tension in the street.”

Azawi Ali Azawi, spokesperson for the National Salvation Front, a coalition of liberal groups called via Twitter for the women's release and said that the verdicts are “unbefitting of revolutionary Egypt.”

Nasserist and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi called on interim president Adly Mansour to pardon the group.