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CAIRO, March 18 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian top court acquitted on Saturday 18 university students loyal to the currently-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group of illegal protests against the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, official MENA news agency reported.
The case dates back to November 2013, four months after Morsi's military overthrow and the massive security crackdown on his supporters.
Egypt's supreme Court of Cassation acquitted the 18 students of breaking into Mansoura University in Daqahliya Province north of Cairo, committing acts of violence and sabotage, protesting without permit, joining an outlawed group and resisting the authorities.
The students were sentenced from two to five years in prison by Mansoura Criminal Court in their first retrial, but they appealed the verdict for the second and last time and were acquitted by the Court of Cassation.
Morsi was removed by the military in early July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year controversial rule and his now-blacklisted Brotherhood group.
Since Morsi's ouster, growing anti-government attacks, with a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State claiming responsibility for most of them, have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
So far, the Egyptian forces have killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects in the restive Sinai Peninsula and nationwide as part of the country's anti-terror war declared by former military chief and sitting President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi following Morsi's ouster.
