CAIRO, Jun 5 (Aswat Masriya) – An Egyptian appeals court revoked on Saturday a two-year prison sentence previously handed down to 33 people for protesting the president’s decision to cede sovereignty over two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. 

A maritime border demarcation agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia stirred up controversy in Egypt when it was signed in April, with critics accusing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of “selling Egypt’s land” in return for Saudi aid. The agreement stipulates that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir will fall within Saudi territorial waters. 

The agreement, which has yet to be ratified in the Egyptian parliament, prompted thousands of Egyptians to take to the streets in rare protests on April 15 and April 25, amid a police campaign of mass arrests of activists opposed to the islands’ transfer.  

The protesters defied a protest law issued in 2013 and widely criticised by Egyptian and international human rights groups, because it requires assembly organisers to notify the interior ministry of their plans in advance, granting the ministry the right to cancel protests. The law sets prison sentences ranging between two and five years for those who violate it. 

On May 14, the Qasr al-Nil Misdemeanour Court had sentenced 51 defendants for “inciting protests”, which were held on April 25 against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s decision. 

The court said in its reasoning that the defendants “sought to spread false news and listened to calls for vandalism under the pretext of rejecting the maritime border demarcation agreement.” 

An appeal filed by 33 of the defendants was accepted late on Saturday and the two-year jail terms previously imposed on them have now been overturned. 

In another court case in relation to the same protests, five-year sentences handed down to 47 other defendants were cancelled on May 24 by another appeals court.

President Sisi had defended his decision to hand over the two islands, saying in a televised speech in April that "Egypt does not sell its land to anyone and it does not take anyone's land." 

The cabinet also argued in a statement in April that the islands are Saudi, adding that Saudi Arabia requested Egypt to protect them in 1950 and they had been under Egypt's control since.