Egypt court upholds death sentences for Brotherhood leader and 182 others

An Egyptian court in the central province of Minya on Saturday upheld death sentences against 183 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, including the top Muslim Brotherhood leader, a judicial source said.

“They were convicted of torching a police station and killing a police officer,” the source told Anadolu Agency.

The defendants, who included Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie, are charged with committing violence, attacking two police stations and killing a policeman in Minya in August following the violent dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, in which hundreds were killed.

On April 28, the same court referred the files of the 183 defendants, along with the files of 500 others, to the grand Mufti, the country’s highest religious authority, to seek advice on their possible execution.

Trial judges had to postpone the trial for almost two hours due to the lack of enough security outside the courthouse where the relatives of the defendants assembled in apprehensive and pessimistic expectation.

Egyptian authorities have started a massive crackdown against the members and the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood since Morsi’s ouster in July last year.