CAIRO ¨C An Egyptian court on Monday banned a prodemocracy movement that helped ignite the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, judicial sources and the website of the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said.
The court was ruling on a private lawsuit brought by a lawyer accusing the April 6 movement of ¡°damaging the image of the state¡± and illegal contact with foreigners, judicial sources said.
April 6 was one of the youth movements that harnessed social media to bring people into the streets for the historic Jan. 25, 2011 protests that led to Mubarak¡¯s downfall at the height of the ¡°Arab Spring¡± uprisings.
Three leading members of April 6 ¡ª Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma ¡ª were sentenced to three years in prison in December on charges including protesting illegally. Their appeals were rejected in April.
The ¡°Cairo Court for Urgent Matters¡± that issued Monday¡¯s ruling was the same body that last year banned the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that propelled Mohamed Mursi to the presidency in a 2012 election.
The army-backed authorities have cracked down hard on the Islamists and secular-minded opponents since the military deposed Mursi last July after mass protests against his rule.
An Egyptian court intensified that crackdown on Monday by handing down a death sentence on the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters.
More details were not immediately available on Monday¡¯s ruling on the case against April 6 brought by a lawyer called Ashraf Saeed.
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