Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Dr. Mohamed Ali Bishr, leading member of both Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance and former Local Development Minister, said: "The anti-protest law disadvantages emerge, day after day, in blatant violations of the rights and freedoms of Egyptians. Today (Sunday, December 22), it led to a court dealing prison terms for activists Ahmed Duma, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel".

Dr. Bishr further denounced the continued campaign by the coup and its apparatus of accounts settling, against all those who participated in the January 25 (2011) Revolution, those who seem intent on holding onto the Revolution’s gains, or those who call for fulfillment of its objectives. He added that the anti-protest law was born dead, and that all consequent processes and actions were transient – would not last.

He affirmed that today’s verdict is a direct consequence of the coup and counter-revolution forces seizing power, attempting to disrupt and undermine the path of democratic transformation, violating human rights, and trampling the will of the Egyptian people.

"The timing of this verdict is absurd – before the third anniversary of the January 25 Revolution – as a court acquits symbols of Hosni Mubarak's ousted regime and others fabricate charges convict those who participated in the Revolution.

"Do the putschists and counter-revolution forces think it is time to eliminate all those who participated in the January 25 Revolution – before the third anniversary? Do they think that their legally-flawed anti-demonstration law will prevent citizens from exercising their rights to peaceful protest?"

Dr. Bishr called for the abolition of the putschists’ new law on demonstrations and the release of all political prisoners who were arrested falsely and unjustly since the coup and until now.