Cairo: Fourteen members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to death in two separate terrorism-related cases today.
In the first case, a court in Mansoura sentenced 10 Muslim Brotherhood members to death for killing a policeman last year. The defendants killed the policeman, who was a security guard for one of the judges hearing the trials of ousted Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi.
After being arrested, some of the defendants admitted killing the policeman. In the other case in Mansoura, four members of the banned group were sentenced to death for terrorist acts that targeted police and army personnel, possessing weapons and sneaking into the Gaza Strip for weapons training.
Nine other defendants, eight of whom were sentenced in absentia, were given life in prison in the same case All the death sentences will be referred to the Grand Mufti, who according to Egyptian law must review all death penalties, though his decision is not binding.
Since Morsi’s ouster by the army in 2013, the Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.
Last month, Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide Mohamed Badie along with 100 other leaders were sentenced to death for escaping from prison in 2011. Morsi and Badie were also sentenced to life in prison for espionage.
