Egypt sentences 14, including activists on terrorism charges

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has sentenced 14 people, including rights activists, to prison terms ranging between five and 15 years on terrorism-related charges in a trial deplored by rights groups as unfair. Sunday’s verdicts were the latest mass sentencings in Egypt. They were reported by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, one of the country’s most prominent human rights. The suspects were arrested in 2018 as part of a wide-ranging crackdown by authorities on dissent. Two activist lawyers among the 14 were sentenced to 15 years in prison each on charges of joining and funding a terrorist group. That is a phrase the government uses for the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian authorities designated the Islamist group a terrorist organization in 2013.