DHAKA: A Cairo court has sentenced three leading activists to three years in prison for organising an illegal protest, the latest move in a widening crackdown on critics of the interim government.

Two of the three activists, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, are leading members of the April 6 movement.

The third is Ahmed Douma, a longtime activist who has been arrested under each of Egypt’s three post-revolutionary governments.

The court on Sunday also handed down fines of 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($7,200).

The defendants were charged with organising a protest last month outside Abdeen Court in downtown Cairo.

Maher was at the court to turn himself in on charges connected with another illegal protest, also in November, outside the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament.

A restrictive law approved last month requires demonstrators to seek advance approval from the interior ministry, report Al Jazeera.

BDST: 1818 HRS, DEC 22, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor