A court in Egypt on Wednesday sentenced 230 protesters involved in the 2011 uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak to life imprisonment, AFP reports citing judicial sources.
Among the defendants was the secular activist Ahmed Douma, who is already serving a three-year term for breaking the law regulating protests.
The other 39 defendants, all minors, were sentenced to 10 years in jail. All 269 defendants were found guilty of participating in clashes with security forces near Tahrir Square in Cairo in December 2011, according to the sources.
The case is connected to the clashes in central Cairo during which a fire destroyed a part of a library with rare manuscripts and books.
It is the heaviest sentence yet against those who were in the forefront of the mass protests four years ago that forced Mubarak to leave office.
