Wednesday 27 November saw a court in Alexandria sentence 14 women who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood and are students in Alexandria University handed sentences of 11 years in prison each. Seven underage female defendants were placed in correction facilities.
The women had been charged with blocking the Corniche, the main thoroughfare that crosses Alexandria form east to West; for being in possession of white weapons, disrupting public peace, and damaging public property. Blocking the Corniche caused a traffic gridlock that lasted hours on end.
Six MB leaders were handed 15-year prison terms each in absentia for inciting the women to commit the crimes.
The sentence brought on a collective resignation by the members of the student union of Alexandria University’s Faculty of Arts. A statement issued by the union declared that the resignation was to protest the ‘harsh’ treatment students in universities were subjected to at the hands of the police, and the sentence which it described as ‘tyrannical’ handed to the female students. The statement said a proposal was being considered for students go on strike.
In the resignation letter, the student union members said that they were aware the legal prerogatives they had granted no provision to confront State authorities when it came to student rights.
Ever since the Islamist president Muhammad Mursi was overthrown by massive public will and military intervention last July, the Islamist MB supporters have been waging an unceasing terror campaign against the Egyptian public. The Sinai Peninsula is the scene of an ongoing war which Islamist Jihadis are waging against the Egyptian army and security forces there; and scores of Egyptian have lost their lives.
Protests and roadblocks have regularly disrupted public life, and university students have daily staged violent demonstrations in universities.
The MB have resorted to using women and children as human shields, and exploiting them to execute acts of civil unrest.
Watani International
28 November 2013