Egypt sentences 230 life sentence, including key activist

An Egyptian court sentenced on Wednesday 230, including prominent liberal activist Ahmed Douma, for life sentence over voilence charges, official news MENA reported.

Douma was also a blogger, who spearheaded the 2011 popular uprising which toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

He was charged, along with 268 others, in the case known to the public as "the cabinet events," of illegal assembly, weapons possession, assaulting police, and arson.

Other 39 juveniles were handed ten years in prison over the same charges.

The defendants were fined with 17 million Egyptian pounds (2.2 million U.S. dollars) in total over burning a scientific complex in the vicinity of the cabinet.

On Jan. 27, Douma also received three years in prison for insulting the judiciary.

Douma was arrested in late 2013 and was sentenced to three years with two other protesters for participation in the illegal pro-democracy protests under the new protest law. Enditem