CAIRO: An Egyptian court jailed 19 supporters of ousted President Muhammad Mursi for five years on Saturday for storming the offices of the head of Al-Azhar institution, judicial sources said.

The defendants were accused of damaging public property, assaulting civil servants and blocking roads for storming the offices of the head of the Al-Azhar institution in Cairo in November, the sources said. Each defendant was also fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 2,850).

A minor accused in the case was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention, while one Turkish national was acquitted of the charges, they added.

The same court had previously handed 529 Mursi supporters death sentences but later upheld the sentencing against only 37 of them. The rest were jailed for life.

On Saturday, Justice Minister Nayyer Abdelmoneim Othman defended the judiciary’s actions faced with international outcry over the Minya rulings. Othman said courts protected defendants’ rights and respected international standards, but were not immune to errors made by judges who are only “humans.” “If there is an erroneous verdict, it would be overturned by the court of cassation,” he said. “I wanted to clarify this image to the world,” Othman said, denying judges could be influenced by the political situation in the country.

“The judiciary is not concerned by the political circumstances and the people’s feelings,” he said.