In yet another blow to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, its Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 36 other Islamists were on Saturday sentenced to life by a court for involvement in deadly protests after military’s ouster of president Mohammed Morsi last year.
Badie, convicted of involvement in deadly protests, has already received death sentences in two other cases. Badie was among the 37 out of 48 defendants, accused of inciting violence and blocking the Qalyoub Highway last year, who were given life sentences on Saturday.
Another 10 defendants, sentenced to death in absentia in June, had their verdicts approved by the country's grand mufti, who according to Egyptian law must review all capital punishment verdicts. One defendant was given three years in jail. Among those sentenced to life apart from Badie were leading Brotherhood members Mohamed El-Beltagy and Osama Yassin.
The prosecution also accused them of being members of a terror group, blocking roads, vandalising public and private properties, illegal possession of arms and disrupting the general peace. The presiding Judge Hassan Farid said the defendants were involved in violence and murder during protests last July after the army's ouster of Morsi.
The judge said the defendants had committed the violence "to achieve terrorist goals." This is not the first mass death sentence announced against the loyalists of Morsi.
In March, Minya Criminal Court in Upper Egypt sentenced 529 Brotherhood supporters to death on charges of murdering the deputy commander of the Matay district police station during riots that erupted in the aftermath of the forced dispersal in August 2013 of Islamist protest camps in Cairo and Giza that left hundreds dead.
Morsi loyalists have been arrested in thousands since last August. Following Morsi's overthrow, Islamists have staged rallies and clashed with police and their opponents.
At least 1,400 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in street clashes and more than 500 officers and soldiers have died in militant attacks following Morsi's ouster.
The Muslim Brotherhood has repeatedly denied involvement in the violence. The group was declared a terror organisation last December. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the ex-army chief who toppled Morsi, was elected in May to succeed Morsi. He has pledged to wipe out the Brotherhood.