Cairo: An Egyptian court has sentenced 32 people related to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group to 10 years in prison over riot and vandalism charges, the media reported.
Citing MENA news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that the defendants were accused of attempting to storm building of Qena governorate, south of Cairo, and setting fire to a nearby parking lot of two courts in August last year.
The Qena criminal court acquitted eight other defendants of the same charges.
In August 2016, the prosecution charged the suspects with murdering two individuals, assaulting security forces, inciting violence, as well as setting fire to the court complex and a number of vehicles in Upper Egypt’s Qena province.
Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and leaders, including ousted president Mohammed Morsi, have received verdicts varied from death sentences to prison terms over violence and murder charges.
Following Morsi’s removal by the army in 2013, angry Brotherhood members and supporters launched several attacks on government institutions and churches of the Coptic minority nationwide.
Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorism that left hundreds of police and military men dead, mostly claimed by a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group.
–IANS