CAIRO, Sept 28 (Aswat Masriya) – A Cairo misdemeanour court sentenced on Sunday 12 students from Ain Shams University to four years' hard labour for participating in on-campus violence last March.

The sentenced students were also fined with 100 thousand Egyptian pounds each. They include two female students.

The defendants were accused of protesting without notice, rioting, assembly, vandalising public and private properties and joining a banned organisation.

University campuses have witnessed unprecedented violence throughout the past academic year, with at least 16 students killed amid on-campus protests, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression's Student Observatory.

The pro-Mohamed Mursi "Students against the coup" movement has been organising protests against the former Islamist president's military ouster throughout the past academic year. Protests have often devolved into clashes with security forces.

The cabinet is preparing for the new academic year with a slew of decisions which include hiring a private security company to guard nine public universities and allowing university chairmen to expel faculty members who "commit crimes which disturb the educational process."