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Friends of the defendants, Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others, raise a note which reads in Arabic "We missed you" in the courtroom during a retrial in Cairo on December 27, 2014. The defendants were sentenced in June to 15 years in prison for holding an unlicensed and violent protest outside the Shura council last November in objection to the military trials of civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images)

Friends of the defendants, Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others, raise a note which reads in Arabic "We missed you" in the courtroom during a retrial in Cairo on December 27, 2014. The defendants were sentenced in June to 15 years in prison for holding an unlicensed and violent protest outside the Shura council last November in objection to the military trials of civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED        (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images)