The Cairo Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced political activist Ahmed Doma to 15 years in prison and ordered him to pay LE 6 million for the damages, in the case known in the media as the “cabinet incidents” case.
The court allowed some political activists to attend the session, including Mahinour al-Masri, Manal Hassan, the wife of activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, his sister Mona Seif, Ahmed Hahara, Nourhan Hefzi, and the brother of Doma, in addition to representatives from the European Union.
The cabinet incidents started on December 16, 2011, when a number of political activists and youth of the revolution declared a sit-in outside the cabinet building in protest of the appointment of Kamal al-Ganzouri as prime minister. It turned into a bloody clash that killed 18 people and injured 1,917.
The military forces dispersed the sit-in. Ganzouri served as prime minister during the era of former President Hosni Mubarak and had been appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), thus protesters demanded that the SCAF immediately transfer power to a civilian body.
269 suspects have been charged with different crimes in the case, including resisting authority, arson, theft, breaking into and damaging government buildings and institutions, damaging private and public property, hindering the work of public facilities, and possessing bladed weapons and Molotov cocktails.
Other defendants were accused of possessing and taking drugs, practicing medicine without a license, attempting to break into the Interior Ministry to burn it, damaging and burning vehicles of the Health Ministry and the General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport, as well as private cars on a street close to the cabinet headquarters.
The Institut d’Egypte, the cabinet headquarters, the People’s Assembly and Shura Council, and the General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport building were attacked, stormed and partly burned, according to the indictment.
Edited Translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
