Retrial of Badie in ‘al-Bahr al-Azam’ case adjourned to July 29

CAIRO – 27 May 2018: Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Monday the retrial of former Muslim Brotherhood group supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, and eight other MB members in the case known as “al-Bahr al-Azam” to July 29.

In September 2014, the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment over charges of “inciting clashes” in al-Bahr al-Azam district, Giza, causing the death of five people. However, the Court of Cassation overturned the verdicts on November 8, 2015.

On April 14, Egypt Court of Cassation upheld a life imprisonment sentence (25 years) against Badie, over charges of inciting violence in the “Rabaa operation room case”.

Badie along with other defendants were charged of orchestrating a plan to spread chaos and violence across Egypt following the dispersal of the 2013 Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins.

On May 8, 2017, the Giza Criminal Court sentenced Badie and two other defendants to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, 15 other defendants were sentenced to five years in prison each, and 21 others were acquitted.

Badie was found guilty in the trial of “cutting-off Qalyoub Road”, in which 36 defendants were also convicted in October 2016. He is still being tried in 11 known cases, mainly over charges of “inciting violence”. However, he stated in a hearing over charges of inciting violence in Minya that he is facing 48 trials, Masrawy reported on February 28.

Badie was sentenced to life in prison in many other cases, including espionage for Hamas, as well as the guidance bureau and Istiqama mosque incidents; however, retrials were ordered in the cases.

He was arrested on August 19, 2013, as part of a nation-wide crackdown on Brotherhood leaders in the wake of increasing violence and protests after two Brotherhood sit-ins were dispersed in 2013. The incidents caused the deaths of hundreds of policemen and supporters of the MB-affiliated former president Mohamed Morsi.

Badie, 74, was the eighth leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood (MB) organization. He became leader of the organization in 2010 after his predecessor Mahdi Akef, who died in 2017.

On April 30, the Cairo Criminal Court has reordered placing the Muslim Brotherhood organization and 1,529 defendants, including Badie, and Morsi on the terror list.