Appeal of former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide rejected

The Cairo Criminal Court yesterday rejected an appeal filed by Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the former supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, against a two year prison sentence handed down to him, a judicial source said.

The source, who preferred not to be identified, told the Anadolu Agency that Akef arrived in court in an ambulance due to the deterioration of his health. Reporters and photographers were not allowed to attend the hearing.

The session was attended by lawyers Mohammed El-Damaty, Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud and Mohamed Toson who requested Akef’s release on health grounds and because he has been in pre-trial detention for more than two years, the maximum pre-trial detention period allowed by law.

The Court of Cassation had earlier this year accepted the appeal submitted by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Muhammad Badie, his deputy Khayrat El-Shater, and 11 other senior Brotherhood figures against a 25-year prison sentence they were handed down in February 2015 and the death sentences given to four others. The court ruled that the case by referred to another court circuit.

The source added that the case’s papers were referred to the Cairo Appeals Court to set a date and new court for a hearing.

Akef was sentence following the events of 30 June 2013 when protesters rallied against the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo demanding then-President Mohamed Morsi step down. Clashes erupted, resulting in the death of nine people and the injury of 91 others.