Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Egyptian Brotherhood leader handed sixth life prison sentence: judicial sources

Published 08/22/2015, 07:23 AM
Updated 08/22/2015, 07:23 AM
© Reuters. Mohamed Badie, top leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, talks during a trial hearing alleging his involvement in a 2013 attack on a Port Said police station, at a court in Cairo

© Reuters. Mohamed Badie, top leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, talks during a trial hearing alleging his involvement in a 2013 attack on a Port Said police station, at a court in Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and several other prominent Islamists were sentenced to life in prison on Saturday for murder and inciting violence, judicial sources said, part of an ongoing crackdown on the outlawed group.

Badie has faced numerous trials and has accumulated two death sentences and five sentences to life in prison in separate cases, which still may be appealed.

Saturday's sentencing related to an attack on a police station in the city of Port Said in 2013 in which five people were killed. The attack was part of a wave of violence that swept across Egypt after the army removed elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi from power in July 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Senior Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy, Islamist cleric Safwat Hegazy, and 16 others were also sentenced to life in prison, 28 to ten years in prison and 68 acquitted. Another 76 people were given life sentences in absentia.

Charges ranged from murder and inciting violence to stealing weapons and destruction of public and private property.

After hearing their sentences, the defendants defiantly flashed the four-finger Rabaa sign synonymous with the Brotherhood's 2013 sit-ins and chanted "down with military rule" from inside a cage in the courtroom.

Since deposing Mursi, the authorities have held mass trials for thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, with hundreds receiving death sentences or lengthy prison terms. Mursi was sentenced to death in June over a mass jail break in 2011.

This has drawn criticism from activists and rights groups at home and abroad. The Egyptian government says the judiciary is independent and that it never intervenes in its work.

The government deems the Brotherhood a terrorist group. The Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest opposition movement dating back decades, says it remains committed to peaceful activism.

© Reuters. Mohamed Badie, top leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, talks during a trial hearing alleging his involvement in a 2013 attack on a Port Said police station, at a court in Cairo

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved an anti-terrorism law this month that sets up special courts. Human rights groups say the law uses security threats as a pretext to curtail political freedoms won in a 2011 uprising.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.