An Egyptian judge has confirmed the death sentences for the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Badie and 13 others.
They have been sentenced to death for planning attacks against the state.
A US-Egyptian citizen and 36 others have been jailed for life.
Mohammed Badie was sentenced in March and is embroiled in some 40 other trials. The sentences are subject to appeal.
Hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in a crackdown on the Brotherhood following the removal of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
However, so far only one death sentence has been carried out.
The court session was broadcast live on TV.
The sentences are the final phase in the trial which saw Muslim Brotherhood leaders charged with encouraging members of the group to confront the state and spread chaos following the dispersal of protests in 2013.
They were handed down following advice from Egypt’s highest Islamic legal official, the grand mufti.
Two of the defendants were sentenced to death in absentia.
Mohamed Badie was already sentenced to death in a case last year related to attacks on police stations in the southern province of Minya. But the ruling was later overturned and a retrial was ordered.
US-Egyptian citizen Mohamed Soltan was sentenced to life imprisonment for supporting the Brotherhood and transmitting false news.
The son of Brotherhood preacher Salah Soltan, he has been on hunger strike for months and has received attention from local and international human rights organizations.
Critics describe the trials against Brotherhood members as politicized, but the government insists on the transparency and independence of the judiciary.
An Egypt court has recommended the death penalty for 683 people – including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie – at a mass trial in Cairo.
The defendants faced charges over an attack on a police station in Minya in 2013 in which a policeman was killed.
However, the judge also commuted to life terms 492 death sentences out of 529 passed in March in a separate case.
Also on Monday, a court banned a youth group that helped ignite the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The decision passed in Cairo to outlaw the April 6 pro-democracy movement was based on a complaint that accused the group of “tarnishing the image” of Egypt and colluding with foreign parties.
Ahmed Maher, the group’s leader, was sentenced to three years in prison in December for violating a law that bans all but police-sanctioned protests.
The cases and speed of the mass trial hearings have drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups and the UN.
The trials took just hours each and the court prevented defense lawyers from presenting their case, according to Human Right Watch.
Families outside the court were not told who of the 529 sentenced in March faced the death penalty (photo Reuters)
The sentences have been referred to the Grand Mufti – Egypt’s top Islamic authority – for approval or rejection, a step which correspondents say is usually considered a formality. A final decision will be issued in June.
Authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists since President Mohamed Morsi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, was removed by the military in July.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.
The verdict was the first against Mohammed Badie in the several trials he faces on various charges along with Mohamed Morsi himself and other Brotherhood leaders.
Of the 683 sentenced on Monday, only about 50 are in detention but the others have a right to a retrial if they hand themselves in.
The group was accused of involvement in the murder and attempted murder of policemen in Minya province on August 14, the day police killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in clashes in Cairo.
Defense lawyers boycotted the last session, branding it “farcical.”
The final judgement on the sentencing of the 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters accused of attacking another police station in the same province on the same day means 37 will now face the death penalty.
Defense lawyer Khaled Elkomy said 60% of those defendants, including teachers and doctors, have evidence that “proves they were not present” when that station was attacked, a statement released by human rights group Avaaz said.
Last month, the UN human rights commissioner condemned the two trials and said they had breached international human rights law.
A spokesman for Navi Pillay said the “cursory mass trial” was “rife with procedural irregularities.”
The government had defended the court’s handling of the first mass case, insisting that the sentences were passed only “after careful study” and were subject to appeal.
At least 1,000 opponents of the military-installed regime have been sentenced since December. As well as the death sentences, the jail terms passed range from six months to life.
The authorities have designated the Brotherhood a terrorist group, blaming it for a series of bombings and attacks. The group has strongly denied the accusations.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie has appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in August.
Mohammed Badie was seized along with other Brotherhood figures after the Egyptian army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July.
Hundreds of Mohamed Morsi’s supporters were killed in clashes following the ousting.
Mohammed Badie, who is the movement’s General Guide, denied the Brotherhood had acted violently.
Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie has appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in August
He is facing charges of inciting violence and murder over the deaths of eight anti-Brotherhood protesters outside the movement’s headquarters in Cairo.
Mohammed Badie was in court in Cairo along with other Brotherhood figures.
He asked why the death of his son and the burning down of Brotherhood offices were not being investigated instead.
Mohammed Badie was a prominent figure at the Brotherhood’s protest camps in Cairo, but went into hiding as the military-backed interim government increased its efforts to shut down the protests.
His 38-year-old son Ammar was killed in the protests.
In a separate case, Egyptian prosecutors referred the secular activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others for trial.
They are accused of breaking Egypt’s new laws against protests by demonstrating without permission last month.
General Guide Mohammed Badie, the spiritual leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has been arrested in Cairo, officials say.
Reports said Mohammed Badie was detained at a residential flat in Nasr City.
A state of emergency is in force in Egypt amid turmoil following a crackdown on Islamists in which hundreds have died.
Three days of mourning are being held for 25 police killed in Sinai by suspected Islamist militant extremists.
Almost 900 people, including more than 100 police and soldiers, are reported to have been killed in Egypt since Wednesday, when the army cleared protest camps set up by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi, many of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
On Sunday, 36 Islamist protesters died in a prison van in the capital, Cairo.
Hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been detained over recent days.
Mohammed Badie had been on the run as the military-backed interim authorities in Egypt try to suppress protests at the ousting of Mohamed Morsi.
He is facing charges of inciting violence and murder over the killing of eight anti-Brotherhood protesters outside the movement’s headquarters in Cairo last June.
Officials and state media said Mohammed Badie was detained in a flat in Nasr City in north-east Cairo, near the site of one of the protest camps bloodily broken up last week.
Images of Mohammed Badie shortly after his arrest were shown on the private channel ON TV.
Mohammed Badie, the spiritual leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has been arrested in Cairo
The arrest comes days after Mohammed Badie’s 38-year-old son, Ammar, was shot dead during protests in the capital’s Ramses Square.
Mohammed Badie’s deputy, Khairat al-Shatir, was arrested in the days following Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow.
Correspondents say his detention will further ratchet up tensions in the country, where an indefinite dusk till dawn curfew is in place, a leaves a power vacuum at the top of the Brotherhood movement.
The attack on the Sinai police convoy, close to the town of Rafah on the Gaza border, was one of the deadliest on security forces in several years.
It is not clear who carried out the attack. Sinai is home to a range of militant groups, some of which have links to al-Qaeda.
The off-duty police officers were reportedly ordered to leave the buses before being shot in the back of the head.
State television showed their flag-draped coffins arriving by plane in Cairo.
Egypt’s official media has not connected the killings to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the deaths add to the sense of crisis.
In a separate incident, another police officer was killed in the north Sinai town of el-Arish.
Attacks by Islamist militants on the Egyptian security forces have surged in northern Sinai since 2011 – they have been close to daily in recent weeks.
European Union foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to cut some of the billions of euros in aid pledged to Egypt.
Meanwhile, Egyptian prosecutors have added a further 15 days to ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s detention while they investigate fresh allegations against him.
Mohamed Morsi has reportedly been accused of complicity in acts of violence against protesters outside the presidential palace last December. His detention had already been extended by 30 days in a separate case on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for another former leader, Hosni Mubarak, has said he hopes his client could be released from prison within the next two days.
Lawyer Fareed al-Dib said Hosni Mubarak had been cleared of one corruption charge and they were waiting for the court to check whether he still had to be held in custody on other counts.
Hosni Mubarak is facing a retrial for corruption and complicity in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising which ended in his removal from power after 30 years.
While it is still no more than a rumor, analysts say his release would be seen by many Egyptians as a signal that the military is rolling back the changes that flowed from the uprising of 2011.
Public prosecutor in Egypt has frozen the assets of 14 Islamist leaders, according to judicial sources.
The Muslim Brotherhood head Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater are reported to be among them.
Mohammed Badie and other Muslim Brotherhood figures are already the subject of arrest warrants, while the ousted President Mohamed Morsi remains in custody.
On Sunday, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi defended the decision to remove him from power.
In a speech, he said he had urged the Islamist president to hold a referendum on his rule days before he was overthrown.
“The response was total rejection,” he added.
Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said no group would be barred from politics: “Every political force… must realize that an opportunity is available for everyone in political life and no ideological movement is prevented from participating.”
Mohammed Badie and other Muslim Brotherhood figures are already the subject of arrest warrants in Egypt
A temporary government is tasked with leading the country under an army-backed “road map” to restore civilian rule.
The decision by Egypt’s public prosecutor Hisham Barakat to freeze the assets of senior Islamists comes amid an ongoing investigation into deadly clashes that have happened since President Mohamed Morsi was ousted.
Dozens of people have died during major demonstrations by pro- and anti-Morsi protesters in the past two weeks.
According to Egypt’s state-run Channel 1 TV, the leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party Mohammed Saad al-Katani has also been affected by the asset freeze, along with senior figures in rival Islamist groups.
In the meantime, Egypt’s new interim PM Hazem al-Beblawi has begun appointing people to senior cabinet posts.
Ahmed Galal, a liberal economist with a doctorate from Boston University, is to be finance minister. Nabil Fahmy, a former ambassador to the US, was named foreign minister.
Mohamed Morsi’s supporters, many of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been staging a mass sit-in Cairo since their man was removed from power on July 3.
They are demanding his reinstatement as president and say the military’s removal of him amounted to a coup.
The army says it intervened to remove Mohamed Morsi in response to protests by millions of Egyptians who accused him of becoming increasingly authoritarian and failing to tackle economic difficulties.
[youtube cUavtB2eBMM]
This website has updated its privacy policy in compliance with EU GDPR 2016/679. Please read this to review the updates about which personal data we collect on our site. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our updated policy. AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
