Sunday, March 01, 2015

Four Brotherhood Members Sentenced to Death; Life in Prison for Supreme Guide
Ahram Online
Saturday 28 Feb 2015

The death sentences were issued in December and have since been confirmed by the grand mufti, although all defendants can appeal

A Cairo criminal court on Sunday confirmed the death penalty for four leading Muslim Brotherhood members, and sentenced the group's spiritual leader, Mohamed Badie, to life in prison.

In December 2014 the court sentenced the four men to death and referred the sentences to the grand mufti for consideration.

The mufti endorsed the court's December decision.

Those convicted were accused of murder, inciting murder, attempted murder, possession of firearms, and joining an armed group that aims to terrorise citizens during clashes outside the Muslim Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on 30 June 2013, which left 12 protesters dead and 91 others injured.

The men sentenced to death are Mohamed Abdel-Azeem El-Beshlawy, Mostafa Abdel-Azim Fahmy, Atef Abdel-Azim Mohamed and Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Abdel-Rahim.

Fourteen others received life sentences including Badie's deputy Khairat El-Shater and leading members Mohamed El-Beltagy, Essam El-Erian, and Mohamed Mahdy Akef.

The verdicts can still be appealed.

Badie and El-Beltagy and other Brotherhood leaders have been facing multiple trialsin relation to violent acts committed by Morsi followers following the police's bloody dispersal of two pro-Morsi vigils in August 2013.

Courts have recently issued mass death sentences against hundreds of Morsi supporters.

Many of these decisions were later reduced or overturned on appeal.

The Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organisation in December 2013.

Since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, thousands of Brotherhood members have been arrested, and many face charges of inciting murder or violence, or membership in a terrorist group.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/124121.aspx

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