Cairo: An Egyptian appeals court on Sunday sentenced prominent activist Mahinour Al Masry to six months in prison, reducing an earlier sentence of two-year imprisonment, on charges of holding an illegal protest.
The Misdemeanour Appeals Court in the coastal city of Alexandria also ordered Mahinour, a human rights lawyer, to pay a fine of 50,000 Egyptian pounds (Dh26,351), according to activists.
Mahinour, 26, was arrested last December for protesting outside a court building in Alexandria where two policemen were being retried over the torture and killing of political blogger Khalid Saeed whose 2010 death sparked a popular revolt the following year against former president Hosni Mubarak.
In May, a lower court gave Mahinour the two-year sentence and the LE50,000 fine after convicting her of staging an unauthorised protest and attacking police.
On Sunday, presiding judge Sherif Hafez announced the commuted verdict, saying the court exercised clemency due to the defendant’s young age, activists said.
Earlier this year, Mahinour was awarded the European Ludovic Trarieux human rights prize annually offered to lawyers, who advocate human rights.
Mahinour was also detained in the eras of Mubarak and his Islamist successor Mohammad Mursi, who was toppled by the army last year.
Several pro-democracy activists have been jailed in Egypt since last November when authorities issued a controversial law that bans street rallies without police’s permission.
Rights groups and the opposition have slammed the law as aimed at muzzling political dissent. The government says it is necessary to regulate street protests and preventing them from turning violent.
