Egypt: Mohamed Badie and other leading Muslim Brotherhood figures sentenced to death by Egyptian Court

Mohamed Badie, former Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide,
sentenced to death by Egypt's Criminal Court
(Image: Mada Masr)

Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced Mohamed Badie, Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, and 13 other leading Muslim Brotherhood figures to death on Monday, 16 March. Mohamed Badie and other 13 defendants were accused of inciting murder and violence and provoking chaos in the country after Islamist backed President Mohamed Morsi was dispersed in 2013. This case is publicly known as “Rabaa Operations Room”, referring to the massive Rabaa Al-Adaweya protests of Muslim Brotherhood’s and Morsi’s supporters.

51 people, leading Muslim Brotherhood figures, among them Mohamed Badie and other 13 defendants accused on Monday, were referred to trial since April 2014. This case is headed by the Judge Nagy Shehata, who is presiding also over four other high-profile cases, including the former Al-Jazeera’s journalists’ trial.

Mohamed Badie and 13 other defendants were accused of setting up special operations after Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in dispersal in August 2013 and directing the groups of Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters throughout the country in order to cause the violent clashes, attack Egyptian military and police, churches and private property and inciting chaos in the country, defying Egyptian transition government. Among other 13 leading Muslim Brotherhood figures who received the death sentence together with Mohamed Badie are Saad Al-Hosseini, former Kafr El-Sheikh governor, preacher Salah Sultan, Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson Mahmoud Ghozlan and others. The court also set April 11 as a date to announce the verdicts for the remaining defendants.

After the death sentences were announced for Mohamed Badie and other Muslim Brotherhood members, the verdict was referred by the Court to Egypt’s Grand Mufti for revision and approval. It’s the legal step in the procedure of announcing and executing the death sentences in Egypt. Egypt’s Grand Mufti has to review the court sentences and issue his verdict. Grand Mufti’s decision is not binding, but it’s a part of the official procedure, and once his decision will be taken and announced, the court will issue the final verdict. After the final verdict will be issued, the defendants will have the right to appeal it in the court.

Mohamed Badie, Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, stands currently the trial for several different cases, and he has already received death sentences in some of them, but the court later changed the death sentences to the life imprisonment.

After Egyptian authorities have officially declared Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group and prohibited all its activities on the territory of Egypt, thousands of Muslim Brotherhood’s members and supporters were arrested and stood the trials across the country, while hundreds of the group’s members were sentenced to death over the past one and half year.