On Monday, the First Circuit of Cairo Criminal Court ordered 12 defendants to be imprisoned from one year to seven years in prison for retrial in the case known in the media as the events of the Council of Ministers.

According to local media, the court, held at the Police Academy, headed by Counselor Mohamed Sherine Fahmy, acquitted four defendants in the same case. The prosecution accused the defendants and others of committing the crimes of violating public security and peace, resisting the authorities by using force and violence to prevent them from performing their work to secure and protect government facilities and sabotaging and destroying public and private property.

The Cairo Criminal Court earlier ruled that the defendants be punished between life and temporary hard labour for 5, 10, and 15 years. Two hundred sixty-nine people have been tried in this case, which resulted in some dead and wounded in the violence in the Council of Ministers’ vicinity.