News / Egypt

Egypt court sentences 8 Morsi supporters to death, 12 to life in jail

Sunday, 29 May 2016 4:41 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 29 May 2016 4:41 PM ]

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood defendants stand behind the bars during their trial, along with ousted president, Mohamed Morsi (unseen), in Cairo on June 16, 2015. ©AFP

A military court in Egypt has sentenced to death on terrorism charges eight supporters of ousted president, Mohamed Morsi.

The court on Sunday also sentenced another 12 members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, with which Morsi was affiliated, to life in prison. Six others also received 15-year jail sentences, the official al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Two of the defendants were acquitted and two others were convicted in absentia.

The defendants were accused of membership in an illegal group and planning to carry out attacks on military and police personnel. The verdicts can still be appealed.

Morsi was elected as the country’s president in 2012, but was ousted only a year later in a military coup led by the then army chief and current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.

Since the ouster of Morsi, thousands of anti-government protesters, mostly Brotherhood supporters, have been sentenced to jail in civilian and military courts. Cracking down on Morsi’s supporters, the country held mass trials in 2015, when it gave death sentences to many Egyptian protesters.

The Brotherhood has vowed “peaceful resistance to the coup.”

Earlier this month, the country’s top appeals court acquitted Ahmed Nazif, the last prime minister of ousted dictator, Hosni Mubarak, of illegally profiting 64 million Egyptian pounds ($7.2 million).

Nazif had been sentenced to three years in prison in 2012 over the charges, but was given a five-year jail sentence in July 2015 after a retrial ordered by the court of cassation.

Both rulings were canceled by the court of cassation, which issued the final acquittal.

Most of the government officials who were put on trial after the ouster of Mubarak in 2011 uprising, have been cleared of corruption charges.

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