Updated

An Egyptian court has convicted three of the country's most prominent secular activists from its 2011 uprising for holding a rally without authorization and attacking police officers, sentencing them to three years in prison.

Judge Amir Assem also fined them $7,000 in his verdict Sunday.

Activists Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohammed Adel are founding members of April 6, Egypt's leading youth movement, which was one of the rallying forces behind the 2011 protests against Hosni Mubarak. They have continued to pressure consecutive governments for reform of the police, a representative political system and accountability of public officials.

They are the first to be convicted under a new law that restricts protests, a law implemented by the country's military-backed interim government and widely criticized by human rights groups and politicians.