Police jailed for five years after going on strike in Egypt

             

Thirteen police officers have been jailed for between three and five years after striking for higher pay and better working conditions.

Eleven members of the group were sentenced to three years in prison and two were jailed for five years.

The charges were illegal assembly, inciting against the interior ministry (which is in charge of law enforcement), and belonging to an outlawed group.

The state-run Al-Ahram news website said the men were low-ranking officers who were among hundreds who went on strike in the Nile Delta's Sharqiya governorate in 2015.

At the time, a security source linked the protests to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, Al-Ahram said.
The sentences were handed down in Cairo Criminal Court on Saturday.

The officers are allowed to appeal their sentences but it is not clear whether they will.