Egypt Sentences 10 Brotherhood Members to Death: State TV
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced a total of ten Muslim Brotherhood members to death in absentia over the charges of inciting violence and murder in protests after the ouster of the country's President Mohamed Mursi last July, state TV reported.
Previously, the state television reported that the Brotherhood' s spiritual leader Mohamed Badie was among the convicted, yet the latest news confirmed that he was not on the list.
Badie was sentenced to death with nearly 700 Brotherhood supporters late April in a separate case on the charge of attempted killing of policemen in the Nile river city of Minya last August.
The court found the ten Brotherhood members, who were not present at the trial, guilty of inciting violence and blocking a major high way in north Cairo in public protests after then President Mursi was ousted in a military coup.
The court ruling was referred to the office of the Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic authority, for his review. The final verdict, which can be appealed, will be issued on July 5.
The same court also delayed the sentencing of the rest 38 defendants, including Brotherhood leader Badie, who are also accused of the same charges, to the July 5 hearing.
Among the defendants in the trial are Mohamed el-Beltagi, a senior leader of Brotherhood, Salafist preacher Safwat Hegazi, and two former cabinet ministers of the Mursi administration.
Besides the Saturday trial, Beltagi and Hegazi are also being tried over other crime charges.
Since the ouster of Mursi, the country's first freely-elected president, in July last year, hundreds of his supporters and members of his Islamist group have been either arrested for jail terms or sentenced to death.
Mursi himself is now standing trial over charges including allegedly killings of protesters and spying for Palestinian group Hamas, Xinhua reported.
The Egyptian authorities has labelled the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, and accuses the group of being behind a series of attacks and bombings in the country after the Mursi was toppled. However, the Brotherhood denies such accusations.
