CAIRO: The military trial of 25 army officers, known as the April 8 case, was adjourned Monday to Sept. 23, while eight protesters in Alexandria also facing military trials were found innocent and another seven received one-year suspended sentences.
Charges of sedition against uniformed army officers who participated in protests in Tahrir Square on April 8 to speak out against the ruling military council were reportedly watered down to misconduct.
The usual sentence for misconduct is six months, say lawyers.
Also on Monday, 15 protesters arrested in Alexandria by the military police on July 22 when hundreds of protesters blocked the coastal road near the army’s northern command headquarters, were set free, seven of them receiving one-year suspended sentences.
During the July confrontations, police fired shots in the air and charged at demonstrators who responded by hurling stones.
This was a rare incident of violence following two weeks of largely peaceful protests in Alexandria, Cairo and Suez, triggered by a court decision to free on bail seven policemen accused of killing protesters during the uprising that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February.
Mohamed Mansour, Ahmed Abdel Monged, Mohamed Khamis, Khaled Youssef, Bassem Badry, Abdel Rehim Abdel Hamid, Mohamed Hassan and Khaled Gamal were innocent, while Marwan Youssef, Tharwat Lawendy, Abdullah Maghraby, Abdullah Khaled, Ibrahim El-Dessouky, Yehia Shaaban, Hassan Rohayem received suspended sentences.
Member of "No to Military Trials" campaign in Alexandria Evronia Azer confirmed to Daily News Egypt Monday that one of the protesters who received a one-year suspended sentence, Hassan Rohayem, was believed to belong to the dissolved state security apparatus.
"This informer, Hassan Rohayem, started the clashes. He appeared in a video filmed by my friend in which he was holding stones, which led to the escalation of the clashes," Azer claimed, adding that it was the first time he was seen among protesters and none of his family members showed up during the trial or tried to seek legal assistance for him.
"Protesters were beaten up severely by the military police; some of them took their coffins and went to the army’s northern command headquarters to discuss their demands. They entered there and when they were out they were severely beaten," Azer added.
Azer confirmed that three of those protesters were girls, which provoked many of the other protesters after seeing the girls humiliated.
