Court jails Egyptian leader Badie for life
Badie and the other defendants were convicted of incitement to violence on July 15, 2013, including the killing of five demonstrators during protests in an area in Giza known as Al Bahr Al Azim
CAIRO: The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and other leaders of the banned group were sentenced to life in prison on Sunday, judicial sources said, on charges of incitement to murder and violence during protests five years ago.
The sentence is the latest among several trials and re-trials against Mohamed Badie and other senior leaders of the party that ruled Egypt before the military ousted president Mohamed Mursi following mass protests.
The sources said that Giza Criminal Court sentenced several top leaders including Badie, group spokesman Essam Al Erian, and senior member Mohamed ElBeltagy to life terms.
State news agency MENA said another defendant was jailed for 15 years and three others for 10 years. Badie and the other defendants were convicted of incitement to violence on July 15, 2013, including the killing of five demonstrators and wounding of 100 during protests in an area in Giza known as Al Bahr Al Azim.
The court had previously sentenced 15 people to life imprisonment in the Al Bahr Al Azim case in September 2014 but an appeals hearing had subsequently struck down the ruling and ordered a retrial. Since President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi came to power in 2014, authorities have justified a crackdown on dissent and freedoms as being directed at terrorists and saboteurs trying to undermine the state.
Last month, a court referred the files of Badie and other Brotherhood leaders in a separate case to Egypt’s most senior Muslim religious authority, the Mufti, for his opinion on whether they should