4 preliminarily sentenced to death in Brotherhood leaders' trial over inciting violence

Sunday 07-12-2014 12:34 PM
4 preliminarily sentenced to death in Brotherhood leaders' trial over inciting violence
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CAIRO, Dec 7 (Aswat Masriya) – The Cairo Criminal Court referred to the Grand Mufti on Sunday four defendants tried alongside Muslim Brotherhood Leader Mohamed Badie for inciting violence to consider handing them death sentences.

Badie, his deputies Khairat al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi and 15 other Brotherhood members are facing trial over violence which took place outside the group's headquarters on June 30 and July 1 last year. The violence left at least nine killed.

The defendants preliminarily sentenced to death on Sunday are: Mohamed al-Beshlawi, Mostafa Fahmy, Atef Abdel Gelil and Abdel Rehim Mohamed.

The court postponed the verdict for the remaining defendants, including Badie, to February 28.

The 18 defendants are charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, possession of explosives and firearms, and incitement to murder.

The court is expected to have received the Grand Mufti’s recommendation over the four death sentences on February 28.

The Grand Mufti’s decisions are not binding, yet it is customary for the court to adopt them.

The Giza Criminal Court sentenced on August 26 Badie and other Brotherhood leaders to life in prison for inciting clashes outside al-Istiqama Mosque in Giza on July 22, 2013.

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.

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 Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on July 3 last year. A court in Minya has served over 1000 Brotherhood supporters preliminary death sentences in March and April 2014.

The former president, ousted since July 2013, is implicated in a group of other court cases. He is being tried for inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace during his tenure in December 2012, insulting the judiciary, and escaping from the Wadi al-Natroun Prison during the 18-day January 25 uprising in 2011.

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