Egypt hands down 17 life sentences over deadly 2014 unrest

A court in the Egyptian capital of Cairo has handed down life sentences to 17 people over their involvement in the country's anti-government protests in 2014 in which three people died.

The court also sentenced 16 people to jail terms ranging from seven to 15 years. Fifteen others were acquitted in the verdicts, state television announced on Sunday.

The 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment over charges of membership in the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement, possession of weapons and holding an illegal gathering.

Mayada Ashraf, 23, who worked for privately owned newspaper Al-Dustour, was shot in the head while she was covering clashes in Cairo's northern neighborhood of Ein Shams on March 28, 2014.

A Coptic Christian woman and a 13-year-old boy were also killed in the violence.

They were all killed during clashes between security forces and supporters of Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted as president by the army in July 2013.

Egypt's prosecution in 2015 ordered the trial of 48 people in connection with the deaths of the female journalist and the two others.

A statement then said they were all members of the Brotherhood, which was blacklisted as a terrorist organization by officials following Morsi's ouster in a bid to prevent its affiliates from running in elections.

Since the ouster of Morsi, thousands of anti-government protesters, mostly Brotherhood supporters, have been sentenced to jail by civilian and military courts.

The 2014 protests broke out after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced he was running in that year's presidential election.

After four years in office, Sisi announced in January that he would stand for re-election in the presidential vote due to be held in March.

PressTV-Egypt’s Sisi says will run for re-election

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi says he will run for re-election in the presidential vote due to take place in March.

“I announce to you in the honesty and transparency which we are used to... my candidacy for the post of president of the republic,” Sisi said.

Sisi came to power as president in June 2014 after winning a landslide victory in the presidential election held a month earlier with securing nearly 97 percent of the vote. In July 2013, he led a military coup against Morsi - Egypt’s first democratically-elected president after the fall of former dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011 - that led to Morsi’s ouster and imprisonment. 

International rights groups have repeatedly blasted the government of Sisi for launching a heavy-handed crackdown on anti-government protesters and stifling freedom of speech.

The clampdown has led to the deaths of more than 1,400 people and arrests of 22,000 others, while hundreds have been sentenced to death in mass trials, according to human rights bodies.

The authorities have arrested thousands of Brotherhood leaders and members, including Morsi, since his ouster.

An Egyptian court in September 2017 sentenced the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement, Mohamed Badie, to another life term in prison over his alleged role in protests in 2013.

PressTV-Egypt hands Brotherhood leader new life sentence

Badie had already been sentenced to life in jail in 2014 after being convicted of murder and inciting violence during clashes that took place during the military-led ouster of Mohamed Morsi.

Badie had already been sentenced to life in jail in 2014 after being convicted of murder and inciting violence during clashes that took place during the military-led ouster of Morsi.

On December 30, 2017, a court in Egypt sentenced Morsi and 18 leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement to three years in prison for “insulting the judiciary.”

PressTV-Egypt’s Morsi sentenced to 3 years in prison

A court in Egypt sentences the country’s former president, Morsi, to three years in prison.

The Cairo Criminal Court handed down its sentences to Morsi and 13 other defendants who were present in the court, the former president’s lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsud, said, adding that the remaining defendants were also handed the same sentences in absentia.

Read more:

• Giza court gives death penalty to 11 suspected members of terror cell
• Egypt set to hold presidential election in late March
• Egypt hangs five more inmates

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