CAIRO: In the latest blow to freedom of expression and assembly in Egypt, a Cairo court on Sunday (Monday in Manila) sentenced nearly two dozen secular activists to three-year prison terms for violating a law that essentially bans street protests.

The 23 who were sentenced in the closely watched case included several figures who rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. More recently, they had run afoul of the authoritarian regime that came to power after a 2013 coup that deposed the country’s first elected president, Islamist Mohamed Morsi.

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