Muslim Brotherhood leader sentenced to life in prison for murder and inciting violence

Monday 15-09-2014 06:17 PM
Muslim Brotherhood leader sentenced to life in prison for murder and inciting violence

Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie looks on from the defendants cage during his trial with other leaders of the group in a courtroom in Cairo December 11, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer

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CAIRO, Sept 15 (Aswat Masriya) – The Giza Criminal Court sentenced on Monday Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 14 others to life in prison for murder and inciting violence.

The 15 defendants were tried for violence which occurred following the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in Giza's Bahr al-Azam neighbourhood on July 15, 2013. Violent clashes broke out in the neighbourhood following a pro-Mursi protest, leaving five people killed.

They also include Brotherhood leaders Essam el-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagy, former Supply and Internal Trade Minister Bassem Ouda and Islamist preacher Safwat Hegazy. They were accused of murder, illegal assembly, attempted murder and possession of unlicensed weapons, vandalism and joining a "terrorist" organisation, among other charges.

Badie has already been served a ratified death sentence over clashes in Minya last August. A criminal court confirmed on June 19 the supreme guide's death sentence alongside 182 other defendants. The mass death sentence has garnered international condemnation.

On August 30, the Giza Criminal Court amended, to life in prison, another death sentence served to Badie and seven others for inciting clashes outside al-Istiqama Mosque in July 2013.

The Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide remains facing a string of other charges in more than one pending court case.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders have often found themselves behind bars and facing courts since the ouster of Brotherhood member and former President Mursi on July 3 last year. A court in Minya has served over 1000 Brotherhood supporters preliminary death sentences in March and April 2014.

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