Egypt jails Islamic group members

Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party) is banned in Egypt

An Egyptian court has convicted 26 people, including three Britons, for membership of an illegal Islamic group.

The defendants were sentenced to between one and five years in prison.

The men were accused of attempting to revive Hizb al-Tahrir, which was banned by the Egyptian government after allegedly attempting a coup in 1974.

The government has cracked down on groups it accuses of plotting Islamist sedition since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

'God is great'

The men were charged in 2002 as suspected members of Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party), which says it aims to transform a corrupt society into an Islamic one.

The high state security court sentenced three Britons, eight Egyptians and a Palestinian to five years in prison.

Seven Egyptians were sentenced to three years and seven received one-year sentences. One of the group was convicted in absentia.

Only relatives of the British defendants Ian Nisbet, Reza Pankhurst and Maajid Nawaz were allowed in the Cairo courtroom.

British defendants Ian Nisbet and Maajid Nawaz are led into court

Relatives of the convicted Egyptians screamed outside the court when the sentences were announced.

The convicted men shouted: "God is great, thanks be to God!"

The court's verdicts cannot be appealed against, although Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must ratify them.

Torture allegation

A spokesman for the Islamic group condemned the verdict and said the authorities had used torture to force confessions from the defendants.

Egypt says it investigates prisoners' claims of torture and prosecutes perpetrators.

The British men, who had come to Egypt to study Arabic, say they were tortured in prison and forced to sign the confessions that were presented to the court.

A British Foreign Office spokeswoman in London said the men's claims of mistreatment were "something we take very seriously and we have been pursuing that with the Egyptians".

The Hizb al-Tahrir was founded in 1953 and seeks to put all Muslim countries under a single Islamic state.

It is legal and active in London and has developed in several Arab countries and in Muslim central Asia.