Sidi Gaber Misdemeanour Court of Appeals ordered a two year sentence with hard labour and two years surveillance to four participants of a political flash mob that was held on 27 August 2013.
The suspects were sentenced for the charges of assembly and “thuggery” according to the Egyptian Initiative of Personal Rights (EIPR) Lawyer Hamdy Khalaf who is working on the case. A car, two cameras, a memory card, four Rabaa signs, and a drum were confiscated and used as evidence against the suspects.
The participants were performing a political flash mob among a large group to reenact scenes of “the violence of security forces” during the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins, in front of Green Plaza mall in the coastal city of Alexandria.
The defence team won the initial trial in front of the court of appeals on 21 December and the participants were acquitted, but the prosecution appealed the verdict on 29 December and the sentence was announced on 26 January.
“The sentence will be challenged and we will clarify that the clients were peacefully expressing their opinion,” said Khalaf.
