Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi warned critics on Tuesday not to hold protests on Jan. 25 to mark the anniversary of the 2011 uprising, saying a new revolt risked destroying the country. Opposition groups including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, families of political prisoners, and left-wing activists are calling for mass demonstrations on Jan. 25, 2016 — which marks five years since the start of an 18-day uprising that ended autocratic president Hosni Mubarak's 30-year grip on power. "Why am I hearing calls for another revolution? Why do you want to ruin (Egypt)? I came by your will and your choice and not despite it," Sisi said in a speech. "Look around you to nearby countries, some of which I don't like to name, which have been suffering for 30 years and have not been able to come back. States that have been destroyed do not return." As the armed forces chief in mid-2013, Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member and Egypt's first democratically-elected president, amid widespread unrest over his turbulent rule. Sisi then banned the world's oldest Islamist movement and jailed thousands of its members. Rights activists say he has steadily rolled back the freedoms won in the 2011 revolt. A law has been passed banning Egyptians from protesting without permission, a move activists say is unconstitutional and aimed at preventing a repeat of the mass protests that have toppled two presidents in the last five years. Street protests have all but dried up since the protest law was passed as activists who have held even small, peaceful gatherings were detained. Meanwhile, a military court has sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to 10 years in prison over deadly clashes following the 2013 ouster of Morsi, judicial officials said. Ninety other defendants who were tried in absentia were sentenced to life terms, which in Egypt means 25 years. Badie and dozens of others were found guilty of participating in clashes that killed 31 people in the canal city of Suez between August 14 and 16, 2013. The clashes erupted after police brutally broke up two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on August 14 that year. The charges in the military trial included vandalism, inciting violence, murder, assaulting military personnel and setting fire to armoured personnel carriers and two Coptic churches in Suez. Badie, the Brotherhood's spiritual guide, was sentenced to 10 years along with fellow Brotherhood leader Mohamed Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy, a pro-Brotherhood Islamist, army and judicial officials said. — Agencies
