Egyptian court sentences 75 to hang for 2013 Cairo protests
An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced 75 people to death and more than 600 others to prison in a mass trial over protests in Cairo in 2013 in which hundreds of people were killed in clashes with security forces.
Senior members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood – Mohamed Al Baltagui, Issam Al Aryan and Safwat Hijazi – were among those sentenced to death. Of the 75 condemned, 44 were in the dock while the rest were tried and sentenced in their absence.
Among those jailed was award-winning photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who received a five year-sentence. Forty-seven defendants were given life sentences, while 347 were given 15 years in prison, and 22 minors received 10-year terms.
Five-year terms were handed to 215 people.
The court also sentenced the son of former president and Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi, Ossama, to 10 years.
Most of 739 defendants on trial faced charges of killing police and vandalising property during the clashes.
On August 14, 2013, a month after the army removed Morsi from office, police moved to disperse a sprawling protest camp at Rabaa Al Adawiya Square in Cairo.
About 700 people were killed within hours at Rabaa Al Adawiya and at Nahda Square, where another sit-in was taking place. Hundreds more were killed in street clashes with police in the months that followed.
Abu Zeid, who this year received Unesco’s World Freedom Prize, was arrested in August 2013 as he covered the clashes and was accused of “murder and membership of a terrorist organisation” – charges that can carry a death sentence on conviction.
His lawyer Karim Abdelrady said Abu Zeid was expected to be freed within a few days because he had spent five years in jail.
Mr Abdelrady said the sentence was unfair because Abu Zeid was doing his job in covering the events unfolding in the Egyptian capital, and he would launch another legal effort to recognise the innocence of his client.
Amnesty International condemned the death sentences and heavy prison terms imposed by the court yesterday and called for a retrial in front of an “impartial court”.
The human rights group pointed out that “not a single police officer has been brought to account”.
Egypt’s courts have sentenced hundreds of people to death or long jail terms in other mass trials, including Morsi and several leaders of his movement.
Human rights campaigners said at least 40,000 people were arrested in the first year after the army removed Morsi from office on July 3, 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who was armed forces chief at the time, won the presidency the following year.
He won re-election in March with 97 per cent of the vote against a single opponent who was widely regarded as a token challenger.