Egypt’s former President Mohamed Morsi (pictured) and senior Muslim Brotherhood figures were sentenced to death by a Cairo Criminal Court on Saturday.
The court sent the decisions on 122 defendants to Egypt’s senior Muslim cleric, the Grand Mufti, for review with a final decision by June 2. Among those condemned were Brotherhood leaders Mohamed El-Beltagy and Khairat El-Shater,
Morsi was among 106 defendants — include members of the Palestinian Hamas movement and Lebanon’s Hezbullah as well as Muslim Brotherhood members — sentenced over their breakout from a prison north of Cairo on January 30, 2011, during the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood leaders had been arrested two days earlier, but had not been charged.
The defendants were charged with damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder, attempted murder, looting prison weapons depots, and releasing prisoners.
Morsi has been also charged with 35 others with conspiring with foreign powers — including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbullah, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — to destabilise Egypt. A ruling in that case will be handed down on the former President and 18 co-defendants on June 2.
Morsi, ousted by a military coup in July 2013, has already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for inciting violence and ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators during clashes between his supporters and opponents in December 2012.
Other leading Brotherhood figures sentenced to death on Saturday in the espionage case include acting head Mahmoud Ezzat, who is still not in custody; Islamist cleric Youssef El-Qaradawi, who resides in Qatar; Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie; former Speaker of the House Saad El-Katatni; and the Vice President of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Essam El-Erian.
Almost 1,200 Brotherhood members have been given death sentences since March 2014, although the Grand Mufti has only upheld 210 of the penalties.
(Featured Photo: AP)