Son of leading Brotherhood figure Beltagi sentenced for arms possession

Saturday 03-10-2015 04:23 PM
Son of leading Brotherhood figure Beltagi sentenced for arms possession

Anas el-Beltagy, the son of leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohamed el-Beltagy. Photo from Al-Ahram

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CAIRO, Oct 3 (Aswat Masriya) - Anas el-Beltagy, the son of a prominent Muslim Brotherhood politician and two other students were sentenced to five years in prison for arms possession by a criminal court in Cairo on Saturday.

The three were also fined EGP 200,000 (around $25,500). The trio had been charged with armed violence, encouraging violence and joining a banned organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Egypt declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation in December 2013, in tandem with a nation-wide arrest campaign of the group's leaders. 

Anas's father, Mohamed el-Beltagy is a former parliamentarian and was a leading figure in the Brotherhood's now defunct political party, the Freedom and Justice Party.

Beltagy senior has himself been handed multiple prison sentences including life in prison for encouraging violence and murder in Port Said in north-east Egypt.

His teenage daughter was killed in August 2013 when security forces dispersed a sit-in held to show support for ousted president Mohamed Mursi who was removed by the military after mass protests against his rule.  

Since the July 2013 ouster of Mursi, Muslim Brotherhood leaders and prominent figures have often found themselves behind bars and facing multiple trials.

Local and international human rights groups have described the verdicts as politically-motivated and the trials as lacking due process.

Mursi himself was sentenced to death after being accused of escaping the Wadi al-Natroun prison during the January 2011 uprising.

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