Update: Abu Ismail gets year in prison for insulting judge

Hazem Salah Abu Ismail has been sentenced to a year in prison for insulting the judiciary, reported on Monday the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA).

Mohamed Fahmy, the head of the Cairo Criminal Court, filed the charges against the popular Salafi preacher after he said in a court session, “I do not acknowledge that I am standing before the judiciary in the first place," according to the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

The court was able to immediately issue a verdict against the hardline Islamist because of the nature of the charges, which held that he directly insulted a judge.

Fahmy is presiding over Abu Ismail's trial on charges of fabricating official documents pertaining to his mother’s nationality during his presidential campaign in 2012.

Abu Ismail was disqualified from the 2012 presidential race after the High Elections Commission discovered that his mother holds US nationality. Egyptian law stipulates that presidential candidates must be born to Egyptian parents who never held any other foreign nationality.

He was arrested in the aftermath of Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster on July 3, which provoked a nationwide security crackdown on Islamists and ongoing violent confrontations between Brotherhood supporters and security forces.

Also on Monday, clashes between Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated students and police forces at Mansoura University intensified, reported the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA).

The students allegedly burned tires to block roads and tried to protest in front of the campus. Security forces fired heavy volleys of tear gas to disperse the students.

One person was injured in the confrontation after the demonstrators allegedly threw a rock at him, according to MENA.

Also on Monday, security forces in Assiut claimed to have found a box hiding 16 Molotov cocktails on Al-Azhar University campus.

In Tanta, 23 Brotherhood members were sent back to prison on Monday on charges of thuggery and inciting violence after the prosecution successfully appealed the court’s earlier decision to release them, reported the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

The defendants were arrested following clashes with police forces and area residents after the mass protests that began on June 30 and led to Morsi’s fall from power.