Cairo: An Egyptian court today sentenced 102 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to 10 years in prison, and two others to seven years, on charges of murder and rioting.
The defendants were arrested in July last year following a protest in a district in Cairo after the powerful army ousted Morsi, who belongs to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
They were charged with attempted murder, inciting murder, rioting, threatening violence, and sabotaging private and public property, ahramonline reported.
The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 102 supporters of Morsi to 10 years in prison and two others to seven years, in the latest mass sentencing raising fears of tension ahead of the crucial Presidential elections later this month.
The army-installed interim government has rounded up thousands of Morsi supporters, including most of the Brotherhood`s top leaders, and put them on mass trials since overthrowing him in July.
Pro-Morsi protesters have refused to acknowledge Egypt`s interim authorities and have held near-daily demonstrations in the nine months, often ending in violent confrontations with police and their political opponents.
Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters, including Morsi himself and the group`s top leadership, are currently detained or facing trial on a variety of charges, some of which could lead to the death penalty.
Last week, a court in the southern city of Minya sentenced 683 Islamist supporters, including 70-year-old Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, to death.
Some 16,000 people have been arrested since last July.
Brotherhood has been designated a terrorist group by the military-backed regime, blaming it for a series of bombings and attacks. The group has denied the accusations.
Egypt has been in political turmoil since the overthrow of longtime Prisednt Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.
Egypt heads to presidential polls on May 26-27 in which former Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is the leading contender.
