Cairo: An Egyptian court Saturday sentenced 10 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, confirming a preliminary sentencing, after convicting them of inciting deadly unrest following the ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year.
Eight of those sentenced are still at large including the Islamist group’s mufti Abdul Rahman Al Barr and top lawyer Mohammad Abdul Maqsud.
The court also sentenced 37 other defendants including the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Mohammad Badie and two ex-ministers, to life imprisonment. They were found guilty of inciting unrest, attacking police and blocking a major road in Qaliub north of Cairo in July 2013, days after the army’s overthrow of Mursi.
The rioting resulted in two civilian deaths. The court, held at a makeshift courtroom south of Cairo, ordered 100,000 Egyptian pounds (some Dh5,263) in compensation for each family of the two victims.
The court, moreover, ordered the assets of the convicts be seized.
Defence lawyer Mohammad Touson said that he would appeal against the rulings.
The verdicts are the latest in a series against Mursi’s backers. Last month, a court in Minya, South Egypt, sentenced Badie along with 182 others to death on charges of inciting or involvement in the killing of a police officer and torching state institutions in upheaval that hit Minya last August following a deadly security crackdown on two pro-Mursi mass vigils in Cairo. Badie also received the death sentence in another case.
Egyptian authorities branded the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation after blaming it for a deadly bombing on a police headquarters in December. The 86-year-old group has condemned Mursi’s toppling as a military coup and vowed to restore him to power.
