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An Egyptian court has sentenced three Coptic Christian teenagers to five years in prison for contempt of Islam after they were seen in a video mocking Muslim prayers.
A judge in the central Egyptian province of Minya also sent a fourth defendant, aged 15, to a juvenile detention center for an indefinite period.
The teenagers argued they were mocking beheadings by the Islamic State group, said defense lawyer, Maher Naguib.
The video was filmed on a mobile phone in Jan. 2015. The three teenagers who were sentenced to five years were aged between 15 and 17.
The four teenagers had not yet been arrested as of Thursday and Naguib said he planned to appeal the judgement, but their teacher, who is also seen in the video, has already been sentenced to three years in jail.
In the video, one teenager can be seen kneeling on the ground and reciting Muslim prayers while others stand behind him, laughing.
Egypt's constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions recognized by the state which are Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The country's Christians have long complained of discrimination in the predominantly Muslim country.
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