Court sentences 4 to death, 15 to life for killing policemen in northern Egypt

CAIRO - 3 March 2022: A criminal court in northern Sharkia governorate sentenced four people to death and 15 others to life in prison for joining a terrorist group and killing and attempting to kill a number of police men.

The convicts also face charges of possessing explosives and sabotaging state properties. The rest of defendants in the case were handed seven-year prison sentences.

In 2016, the prosecution office in Sharkia’s Zagazig referred 30 members of a “terrorist cell” to trial for joining the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group in 2014.

The group was established in violation of the provisions of the law with a purpose to call for the suspension of the provisions of the constitution, the prosecution said.

The convicts attempted to achieve the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood group, including trying to overthrow the regime and change the constitution of the state and its republican system, the prosecution added.

In August, the Egyptian authorities have put the banned group of the Muslim Brotherhood on the list of terrorist entities for another five years.

The official gazette “Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya” published on August 11, 2021 a Cairo criminal court’s ruling of blacklisting the Muslim Brotherhood for a period of 5 years. The decision came into force on the following day, August 12.

Meanwhile, the court also blacklisted 56 people belonging to the banned group for a period of five years.

The Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt and designated a terrorist group. Late Mohamed Morsi, who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guidance Bureau, had been president for one year before his regime got toppled over mass protests on July 3, 2013.

In December 2019, Egypt’s House of Representatives approved a final bill presented by the government to amend some provisions of law no. 8 of 2015 organizing the lists of terrorist entities and terrorists.

According to the act on the regulation of the lists of terrorist entities and persons issued in 2015, the inclusion of any group or person on these lists is automatically followed by the seizure of their funds and the issuance of travel bans. In case those designated as "terrorists" are abroad, they are placed on the country's watch list.