By Sayed Fathi
CAIRO
Two Egyptian courts on Sunday acquitted 124 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi of riot charges.
The court of appeal exonerated 112 Morsi supporters who were arrested in connection with violence that marred the third anniversary of the January 25 uprising that ended the 30-year autocracy of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
In June, the defendants were sentenced to one year in prison after a Cairo court found them guilty of rioting, illegal protesting, attacking policemen and incitement to violence.
But the appeal court cleared them today of all charges and ordered their release.
Another court, meanwhile, accepted an appeal by 12 other supporters of the ousted president against a previous three-year jail terms.
The defendants were on June 18 sentenced to three years on charges of threatening to use violence, inciting riots, damaging public properties and joining an outlawed group, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, which was designated a "terrorist" movement late last year.
Egypt's army-backed authorities have launched a massive crackdown on dissent since Morsi's ouster by the army last year – after only one year in office – following protests against his presidency.
Thousands of his Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers – along with a number of secular activists have since been arrested and convicted on multiple charges.
Morsi himself currently faces five separate trials on charges, including espionage, jailbreak and offending the judiciary.
Former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, widely seen as the architect of Morsi's ouster, was elected president in May.
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