Egypt Court Upholds Life Sentence For 10 Islamists

The state-owned MENA news agency on July 12 reported that the Egyptian court has upheld the life sentences of 10 leaders of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s head Mohamad Badie.

In 2019, Cairo’s criminal court found all 10 leaders guilty of killing policemen and organizing mass jailbreaks during 2011 Egypt’s uprising. This resulted in ousting of the long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The convicted were found guilty of conspiring with the foreign militant groups — Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to help around 20,000 prisoners escape and therefore, compromising the national security of the country.

In the meantime, the Court of Cassation exonerated 8 middle-ranking leaders of the oldest Islamist organization who were earlier sentenced to 15 years of prison.

Last month, the Court of Cassation also upheld the death sentence of 12 people involved in 2013 protests by Islamists. This included several senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The court considered these sentences on appeal and therefore, these latest life sentences are final. After the ouster of late Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected President, the Muslim Brotherhood leaders have stood several trials following the crackdown of the group in 2013. Morsi was one of the defendants in one prison-break case, but he collapsed in the courtroom.

In 2011, the charges against Morsi were dropped and he escaped with other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood after he was detained by the security forces of President Mubarak who was trying to undermine their planned protests.

Morsi hailed from the high ranks of the group but his one-year rule as the President provoked nationwide protests and proved to be divisive. He later died in the appearing in a separate trial in the summer of 2019.

These trials and death sentences have drawn huge criticism from various national and international human rights groups which have called the mockery in the face of justice.