CAIRO
Egyptian prosecutors decided on Tuesday to remand 19 people in detention for four days on charges of staging an "unlicensed" protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Prosecutors also ordered two minors to be sent to a juvenile facility on the same charges.
The defendants were arrested on Sunday after staging a protest in Tahrir Square without an in-advance security permit.
They were charged with disrupting traffic, assaulting policemen and attacking the military and police.
Protesters had marched to the iconic square to protest the killing of an engineering student during police dispersal of a student protest last week.
The Egyptian government has approved a controversial law that makes it necessary for organizers to submit a written request to the Interior Ministry three days prior to staging a protest.
It gives the ministry the right to deny protest organizers permission if the planned event is deemed a "threat to security or public safety" or if security conditions are deemed "inappropriate."
According to the law, violators will either be fined or imprisoned – penalties that have provoked outrage on the part of many Egyptian politicians and activists who say the legislation curbs freedoms and gives police free rein to crack down on popular expressions of dissent.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
