Cairo: The Muslim Brotherhood’s strongman Khayrat Al Shater was among 14 leaders of the outlawed group sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday on charges of involvement in deadly violence.
The sentence against Al Shater marks the first ruling issued against the Brotherhood’s chief strategist since the group was removed from power in mid-2013.
The Cairo Criminal Court handed down the same sentence to 13 other Brotherhood leaders, including the group’s supreme guide Mohammad Badie, his deputy Rashad Bayoumi, former parliament speaker Sa’ad Al Katatni, and former head of the group Mahdi Akef.
The court also confirmed an earlier ruling that handed the death penalty to four little-known officials of the Brotherhood.
Upon hearing the rulings, the defendants shouted: “Down with the military rule,” a slogan referring to the government of President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, a former army chief who led the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
The verdicts can be appealed.
The 18 defendants in the case were found guilty of incitement or involvement in the killing of nine anti-Brotherhood protesters in violence outside the Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo in June 2013, days before Mursi’s overthrow.
The army toppled Mursi, a senior Brotherhood leader, following widespread street protests against his one-year rule.
Thousands of his backers have been detained and put on trial since his ouster.
The Brotherhood has dismissed the trials as politically motivated.
Rights groups have, meanwhile, expressed concerns over the rise in Egypt’s mass rulings against Islamist and secular dissidents.
The Egyptian government has repeatedly denied interfering with judicial matters, saying that the country’s judiciary operates independently.
