Tear gas fired as Morsi supporters clash with riot police

Egyptian security forces fired tear gas at dozens of protesting university students in Cairo on Monday in an attempt to prevent their protest from reaching the nearby Defense Ministry.   

The students were protesting Monday outside their university, Ain Shams University in eastern Cairo.  

Students at the Islamic Al-Azhar University and the prestigious University of Cairo, many of whom support ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, have also been staging limited, but often violent protests to keep the pressure on authorities.  

Dozens of students threw stones at the riot police while others picked up tear gas canisters and lobbed them back towards the security forces.  

On Sunday an Egyptian court handed down prison sentences to three of the country's most prominent youth activists in the first use of a controversial new protest law.   

The sentences are being seen as a harsh warning to the secular groups that supported the military overthrow of Morsi but have since grown critical of the army-backed government that replaced him.


AP