Two court in Egypt have sentenced 100 activists and anti-government protesters to a total of 610 years in prison, Press TV reports.

A military court in the Egyptian Nile Delta province of Monoufiya on Monday sentenced 71 anti-government protesters to jail terms ranging from two to seven years. The verdicts pronounced by the court total 355 years in jail.

Separately, a criminal court in the capital Cairo handed down jail terms ranging from five to 10 years - totaling 255 years - to 29 anti-government protesters.

The harsh punishments came hours before Egypt’s Grand Mufti was expected to issue his non-binding opinion regarding a series of death sentences handed down to members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including former President Mohammed Morsi.

On May 18, an Egyptian court sentenced Morsi to death on charges of endangering national security by leaking state secrets to Qatar and escaping from prison during the country’s 2011 revolution.

The 2011 revolution ousted the country’s long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak, widely considered as a key ally of the US and the Israeli regime.

Morsi, who rose to power from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, was then elected as the country’s president but was ousted only a year later in a military coup on July 4, 2013 by Mubarak-era army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who then led an interim government that crushed massive protests against Morsi’s ouster. Sisi went on to win the presidency in disputed elections.

MS/KA/HMV