REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAIRO - An Egyptian court convicted 20 students from an Islamist university in Cairo on charges of rioting during a protest last year in support of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, sentencing most of them on Saturday to five years in prison, a judicial official said.

The official said 19 of the students — all from Cairo's Al-Azhar University — were sentenced to five years in prison each. One defendant got three years while another was acquitted. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to media, said the 19 were also fined 2,860 USD each for property damages.

The verdicts came two days before Egypt's presidential election, a vote that former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is widely expected to win. El-Sissy led the military when it ousted Mursi last July, after days of mass street protests against his rule.

Since then, students have been at the forefront of near-daily rallies denouncing Mursi's ouster and in support of his Muslim Brotherhood group. On Saturday, the Health Ministry said three people died in clashes the previous day between Brotherhood supporters and their opponents. It said 58 people were injured.

Egypt's Justice Minister Nayer Osman, meanwhile, defended the country's judiciary, saying judges can make mistakes but that it did not make the system "flawed." He was responding to growing criticism and international concerns over a series of mass trials in recent months in Egypt, which have resulted in harsh sentences, including the death penalty handed down to hundreds of people, mostly Islamists.

"The judiciary has nothing to do with political circumstances or public emotions," Osman told reporters at a Cairo press conference.

In April, 683 alleged Mursi supporters were sentenced to death, including the Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie. And the month before, 529 Islamists were sentenced to death, but most of those were later commuted to life imprisonment, leaving 37 death sentences standing. The sentences can be appealed.

The verdicts drew an international outcry and raised questions over the fairness of the procedures. Security officials and activists estimate that more than 16,000 have been arrested in Egypt in the 10 months since Mursi's ouster.

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