An Egyptian lawyer says a court in the country’s south has convicted four Coptic teenagers of contempt for Islam after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers.
Three were sentenced to five years in prison each while the fourth was referred to a juvenile facility for being under the age of 18. His sentence was not announced.
Maher Naguib, who represents the teenagers, says they are high school students in the southern province of Minya. They haven’t been detained and didn’t appear in court for the trial.
Naguib says Thursday’s ruling is “unbelievable … the maximum sentence” when they should only have been “punished with a fine.”
In the video, one student is seen kneeling on the ground and enacting the Muslim prayer while others stand behind him, laughing.
