Badie, Beltagy issued 10-year jail terms

An Egyptian military court today sentenced the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and leading figure Mohamed El-Beltagy to ten years in prison each and issued varying prison terms to 311 other defendants on charges relating to the storming of an Ismailia court complex in 2013, legal sources revealed.

The sources, who spoke to the Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, said: “The Ismailia Military Court today jailed Muslim Bortherhood leader Mohamed Badie and leaders of the group, Mohamed El-Beltagy, Mohamed Taha Wahdan and preacher Safwat Hijazi and a woman named Iman Mustafa, to ten years in jail, in the case known in the media as ‘burning the Ismailia courts compounds’.”

“In the same case, the court issued life terms to one defendant who was present and to nine others in absentia. Some 273 defendants were handed 15-year jail terms, 18 others received one- to three –year jail terms. Six others were found innocent.”

Lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud, who heads the defence team, said: “These rulings are subject to appeal to the Supreme Military Court of Appeals within 60 days.”

“For those accused of evading capture, they must be retried in the same court.”

The public prosecutor in Ismailia referred the case to a military tribunal in December 2014 and began its first session in January. The Ismailia case dates back to August 2013 following the forced dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Nahda sit-ins.