Three Egyptian Coptic Christian teenagers have been sentenced to five years in prison on charges of insulting Islam. A court in the central Egyptian province of Minya on Thursday sentenced three school boys - identified as Mueller Atef, Albert Ashraf, and Bassem Amgad - to five years in prison and sent the fourth teenage boy - identified as Clinton Magdy - to a juvenile detention center, according to Ahram Online.
The four school students were convicted of insulting Islam after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers. However, the defendants argued they were mocking Islamic State beheadings in the video, according to BBC. The video was recorded by their Coptic teacher Gad Younan, who has already been sentenced for insulting Islam.
Defense lawyer Maher Naguib described the sentence as "unbelievable," saying that he is planning to appeal the ruling. "They have been sentenced for contempt of Islam and inciting sectarian strife," Naguib told AFP news agency. "The judge didn't show any mercy. He handed down the maximum punishment."
Last week, an Egyptian military court "mistakenly" sentenced a three-year-old boy to life in prison for murdering three people, as HNGN previously reported. The murders allegedly took place during a protest by supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood political outfit in the southern province of Fayyoum. The boy was merely 18 months old at the time of crime.
