CAIRO – 31 December 2018: No matter how hard your year was, the Muslim Brotherhood top leaders faced harder times, as they have been handed a batch of severe verdicts for the numerous charges they face in their ongoing trials since 2013.
The 90-year old Muslim Brotherhood organization was designated as a terrorist group in Egypt in December 2013, few months after the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi, and the dispersal of pro-MorsiRabaa and Nahda sit-ins.
Mohamed Badie
Badie is the eighth Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood group. He was handed four imprisonment sentences (each equals 25 years in jail) in different cases this year.
In August, A Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Badie and four other Muslim Brotherhood members in the case known as “al-Bahr al-Azam” to life imprisonment over charges of “inciting clashes” in al-Bahr al-Azam district, Giza, causing the death of five people.
In December, the court sentenced Badie for life, along with five other defendants, in the case known in media as "incidents of the Guidance Office."
The prosecution charged the Muslim Brotherhood's figures in the case with participating in providing unknown individuals with the weapons, ammunition, incendiary materials, explosives, equipment and planning required to commit the crime.
Badie, along with 64 defendants out of 682 others, was also sentenced to life on September 23 over charges of inciting violence in a case dubbed in the media as “El-Idwa Incidents”.
Earlier in September, Badie and 46 other Muslim Brotherhood members were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case known as “Rabaa sit-in Dispersal.”
However, the Court of Cassation reduced earlier in December the 12-year imprisonment sentence issued against Badie to 10 years in the case known in media as "BeniSuef incidents."
BassemOuda
Oudawasminister of supply and interior trade during Morsi's term. He was handed two verdicts in 2018, including life imprisonment, and 15 years in prison inal-Bahr al-Azam case.
In September, the court sentenced Ouda, along with Badie and 45 other MB members, to life imprisonment in the Rabaa sit-In Dispersal case.
SafwatHegazy
In August, 2013, the security forces managed to arrest SafwatHegazy, an Islamic preacher who is believed to be a Muslim Brotherhood leader,reportedly before he could escape to Libya. He was handed three verdicts this year, including a death sentence.
Also in the Rabaa sit-in case, Hegazy, along with other prominent leaders such as Mohamed el Beltagy, Abdel Rahman al-Barr, AmrZaki, Tarek el-Zomor, and Assem Abdel Maged, was sentenced to death.
In al-Bahr al-Azam case, Hegazy was sentenced to life imprisonment, while he was acquitted of charges in al-Irshad incidents case.
Khairat al-Shater
Not all leaders were lucky in al-Irshad case; Shater, Muslim Brotherhood's deputy supreme guide, was handed a life imprisonment sentence in the case, which is the only verdict he received this year.
Shater was legally excluded from the 2012 election. Subsequently, the Muslim Brotherhood introduced Morsi as an alternative.
Essam al-Erian
Erian, the vice chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing Freedom and Justice party, was handed a death sentence in the Rabaa sit-in case, and life imprisonment in al-Bahr al-Azam case.
A year after millions of Egyptians headed to polling stations to vote for former President Mohamed Morsi in 2012, millions including former Morsi supporters took to the streets on June 30, 2013, calling on him to “leave” his post.
Protesters considered Morsi a puppet controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood group that he has joined since 1979, complaining that the MB group is the actual ruler.
The MB was not hated by all youth following the January revolution in 2011, as Egyptian youth did not know how the MB really works. The group was almost silenced by ousted President Hosni Mubarak during his thirty-year term.
However, following the first year of the “MB presidential term”, June 30 protestors decided that the group headed by Morsi deserved a red card.
Subsequently, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, then defense minister, announced ousting Morsi, meeting the revolution’s top demand.
The dispersal of Muslim Brotherhood protests in 2013 caused the death of dozens of policemen and hundreds of Morsi supporters. The two parties hold each other responsible for the violence.
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