A Zagazig Criminal Court in the Nile Delta city of Sharqiya has sentenced 26 defendants to life in prison for crimes related to illegal protests in 2015 that authorities say were linked to a "terrorist organization".
The defendents were found guilty of "inciting violence and riots, disrupting security and social order, inciting against state institutions, and destroying private and public property", as well as membership of a terrorist organization.
Two defendants in the same case were sentenced to three years in jail, while one was acquitted. The verdict can be appealed in a court of cassation within 60 days.
The 29 defendants were arrested in 2015 on charges of being members of a terrorist group and organizing a protest without a permit in Abo Hamad district in Sharqiya governorate.
In December 2013, Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
Protests without a police permit are illegal in Egypt, having been outlawed by a protest law enacted in 2013.
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