MB leaders Badie, Beltagy, Hegazy sentenced to life over 2013 violent acts

CAIRO – 12 September 2020: Port Said Criminal Court ruled Saturday to sentence to life in prison Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders Mohamed Badie, Mohamed el-Beltagy, Safwat Hegazy and nine others over violence incidents that took place in Port Said in August 2013, after the ouster of the late President Mohamed Morsi.

The violent incidents are known in the media as “Al-Arab Police Station incidents,” where defendants, who are standing a retrial in the case, involved are accused of inciting violence, joining outlawed group and terrifying citizens.

The Port Said Criminal Court had previously issued a ruling in August 2015 to send the accused MB leaders, and 16 others to life in prison for 25 years; punished 76 at large defendants in the same case to life in absentia; acquitted 68 others and sentenced 28 others to 10 years in prison.

The court of the first case stated in its reasoning that the incidents took place after the dispersal of the Brotherhood’s sit-in at Raba’a al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares, where the defendants incited those sympathizers with the illegal group to commit riots and violence in Port Said, and terrorize citizens, using firearms and cartidges.