Egyptian Court upholds life sentences for top Muslim Brotherhood leaders

CAIRO – 9 July 2020: The Court of Cassation on Thursday rejected an appeal by Muslim Brotherhood group-affiliated defendants in one of the cases, over charges including helping supplying unknown people with ammunition.

Cairo Criminal Court in December 2018 sentenced Mohamed Badie, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat Al-Shater, a senior leader of the group and four others to life (25 years in jail) in this case known in media as “the incidents of the guidance office”.

It also acquitted six others in the case, including Saad El-Katatni, speaker of the parliament dissolved in 2013 and prominent figures Essam El-Erian and Mohamed Al-Beltagi.

The group’s figures face charges of providing weapons, ammunition and explosives to unknown figures and planning to commit a crime.

They are also charged with joining an outlawed group, executing terrorist operations to target security personnel, judges, members of the Armed Forces and vital institutions, and possessing explosives.

Egyptian authorities have outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood group and designated it as a terrorist organization after former President Mohamed Morsi, who was a leader for the group, was ousted in 2013.

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"The Armed Forces could not turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to the movement and the appeal of the masses of people," Sisi said in the statement, adding that the Armed Forces "based on their national and historical responsibility consulted with some symbols

Badie and ten other Brotherhood members were sentenced to life in a trial dubbed in media as "illegal crossing of eastern borders" in September last year.

Beltagi and Erian are among the convicts who were handed down life imprisonment, stated a Cairo criminal court, held in Torah, southern Cairo. The life imprisonment term is unchallengeable and final.

The incident occurred in 2011 amid the events of January 25 Revolution as foreign militants illegally entered Sinai and raided Wadi Al-Natroun prison to free the brotherhood’s prisoners.