The military court has convicted three soldiers of manslaughter for the killing of protesters in front of the Maspero building in October 2011, according to a Justice Ministry official who was quoted in the privately-owned Tahrir newspaper on Friday.

Omar Marawan, an assistant to the minister of justice, said a military court convicted Mahmoud Sayed Abdel Hamid Suleiman, 21, Karam Hamed Mohamed Hamed, 21, and Mahmoud Gamal Taha Mahmoud, 22, of unintentionally killing 14 protesters during the Maspero clashes.

Suleiman and Hamed were sentenced to 2 years in prison while Mahmoud was sentenced to 3 years in prison, Marawan stated.

According to the report in Tahrir, lawyers representing the martyred protesters are refusing to comment on the ruling until they study its legal merits and decide on what course of action to take.

On 9 October 2011, 28 people were killed in clashes between the army and protesters after security forces violently dispersed a Coptic-led march outside the state television building.

Widely circulated video clips showed armored vehicles running over protesters, but army officials said the killings occurred by mistake and accused protesters of assaulting the Armed Forces and "infiltrators" of stealing the vehicles that were seen mowing down demonstrators.

The trial of the three soldiers began in December.

Lawyers representing relatives of protesters killed in the clashes withdrawn from one of the trial sessions last April, describing the trial as a "sham whose sole purpose is to clear the army of all blame."