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Life sentence for Brotherhood leader and two officials in ‘Rabaa operation room’ case

May 9, 2017 at 10:52 am

Image of Muhammad Badi is seen during his trial in Cairo, Egypt on 24 November 2016 [Moustafa Elshemy/Anadolu Agency]

The Giza Criminal Court held at the Police Academy in Tora has sentenced to life imprisonment the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide, Mohammad Badi’, as the “Rabaa operation room” case came to a close. Judge Moataz Khafaji handed the same sentence to two members of the General Guide Bureau, Mahmoud Ghazlan and Hussam Abu Bakr.

The movement’s officials were charged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office with “preparing an operations room to direct the movements of the Muslim Brotherhood Organisation to confront the state and create chaos in the country following the breaking up of ‘Rabaa Al-Adawiyya and Nahdha [Squares]’ sit ins and planning to burn public property and churches.”

In December last year, the Court of Cassation accepted appeals from 37 suspects against earlier sentences that ranged from the death penalty to life imprisonment. Sources told Arabi21 that only those who appealed last December are involved with the latest verdicts in the “Rabaa operation room” re-trial. However, those who have been judged in absentia and are not in detention will face the same sentences.

Read: Brotherhood leader Akef’s health to be assessed to allow for his release

The Giza Criminal Court also sentenced 15 political and media figures to 5 years’ hard labour: Salah Sultan, Fathi Shahabuddeen, Salah Numan, Mahmoud Al-Barbari, Abdel Rahim Mohammed, Karim Radwan, Mohammed Ansari, Ahmed Aref, Yousef Talaat, Mohammed Al-Adli, Ihab Turki, Ahmed Kassem and Mohamed Sultan. The latter was tried in absentia.

Another 21 were acquitted: Mustafa Al-Ghunaimi, Saad Al-Husseini, Walid Shalabi, Omar Hassan Malik, Mohammed Al-Muhammadi, Essam Mukhtar, Murad Ali, Jihad Al-Haddad, Ahmed Abu Baraka, Ahmed Sabee, Ahmed Abdelghani, Hani Salah Eddin, Amr Abdel Mawla Musad Al-Barbari, Abdo Desouki, Ashraf Darwish, Omar Youssef Dagesh, Saad Al-Shater, Ayman Al-Faki, Ahmed Abdul Hadi and Ahmed Jumaa.

Dr Mohammad Badi’ was sentenced to death by the Cairo Criminal Court on 11 April on different charges, along with 14 other defendants. Almost 40 others were sentenced to life imprisonment at the same time trial.