Egypt Court Sentences Muslim Brotherhood Leader to Life

An Egyptian criminal court sentenced the chief of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group and dozens of others to life in prison on Sunday on charges of incitement of murder and violence during protests five years ago, a judicial source said, according to Al-Ahram Online.

The sentence is the latest among a series of trials and re-trials against the Supreme Guide of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie and other senior leaders of the Islamist group that ruled Egypt before Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted following massive protests.

The court sentenced 64 others alongside Badei to life terms.

 The case, which involves hundreds of defendants, dates back to violence in August 2013 that followed the dispersal of a sit-in by supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, which left hundreds of Brotherhood members and dozens of police dead. The defendants are accused of assaulting a police station in the southern governorate of Minya and killing a policeman.

The court had previously sentenced Badie to death in 2014 in this case, but an appeals hearing had overturned the verdict and ordered a retrial.

Another 81 defendants were sentenced to between 10-15 years in prison and dozens of others were handed shorter jail terms. The court acquitted 288 other defendants in the same case.

Last month, Badie and other senior Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to life in prison over similar charges in a separate case.

In July, a court referred the cases of Badie and other Brotherhood leaders in a separate case to Egypt’s top Muslim religious authority, the Mufti, for his opinion on whether they should be sentenced to death.

H.M