Egypt's court jails 3 activists for 3 years

An Egyptian court sentenced Sunday three activists to three years in prison and fined them 50,000 Egyptian pounds (7,200 U.S. dollars) for organizing protests without permission, state TV reported. The activists are Ahmed Maher, founder of April 6 Movement, Mohamed Adel, a senior member of the movement, and prominent government critic Ahmed Douma. They were brought to court on charges of violating Egypt's new protest law and assaulting policemen. The controversial law requires protesters to obtain an approval from the government before staging their protests. The activists organized demonstrations but did not give any three days' notice as demanded by the law. The three activists participated in spearheading the massive protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.