An court in Minya on Thursday sentenced four minority Coptic Christian schoolboys aged 15 and 16, to five years in jail for contempt of religion, daily Al-Ahram reported on its website.
Three of the schoolboys were handed prison terms while one was sentenced to juvenile custody by the court in Minya, 245 kilometres south of Cairo.
The charges against the four boys stem from a complaint filed by Muslim residents in Nasiriyah village in Minya Governorate which accused a Coptic teacher named Gad Youssef Younan and five of his students of insulting Islam.
Younan and his students were reportedly filmed in a video clip showing them mocking the Islamic State militant group while on a church outing in February last year.
On 30 January, Younan was sentenced to three years in prison for contempt of religion.
Coptic Christians make up roughly 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 90 million, and have long complained of discrimination and persecution.
