File Photo: Activist Ahmed Douma attends a court hearing in the case of cabinet clashes between protesters and security forcesin a courtroom of Torah prison, Cairo, Egypt, (Photo: AP)
The Egyptian Court of Cassation has accepted the appeal of activist Ahmed Douma against his life sentence on charges related to the 2011 cabinet clashes, and has ordered he be retried.
In December 2011 security forces forcibly dispersed a three-week sit-in at the cabinet building.
At least 18 people were killed and hundreds injured in the violence, which spanned five days.
Douma and 268 other defendants were accused of attacking the cabinet building, security personnel and the Scientific Institute building in downtown Cairo as part of the events.
He was sentenced to life in prison and given a EGP 17 million fine by a Cairo criminal court in February 2015 after being convicted of the charges.
Douma also received three-year sentences in two separate cases, the first for breaching the country's protest law in January 2015, a sentence he has completed, and the second for insulting the judiciary in 2014. In the second case, his appeal was accepted.
Short link: