Egypt Hands Down Death Sentences to 188 Brotherhood Supporters

Egypt Hands Down Death Sentences to 188 Brotherhood Supporters

By | 2014-12-03T09:19:19-04:00 December 3rd, 2014|News|0 Comments
More than 180 supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood were on Tuesday sentenced to death in Egypt over a 2013 attack on a police station near Cairo, the BBC reported.
 
The attack took place on the same day as Egyptian security forces broke up protest camps set up by Brotherhood supporters, leaving hundreds dead.
 
The latest sentences are subject to the opinion of Egypt’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti.
 
A final verdict is due on 24 January, after which defendants may appeal.
 
More than 140 of the 188 defendants are already in custody, while the rest have been sentenced in absentia, noted the BBC.
 
The sentences were passed for an attack on a police station in the village of Kerdasa on August 14, 2013, in which at least 11 officers were killed.
 
More than 500 people were sentenced to death in March for a separate attack on a police station in Minya on the same day.
 
In April, another 683 supporters of Morsi, including leading members of his Muslim Brotherhood, were sentenced to death as well.
 
The prosecution of a further 919 suspected Islamists was ordered by the authorities in two separate trials in the same month. Just last week, a court in Egypt sentenced 78 youth to up to five years in prison for protesting with the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
The rise of mass convictions in Egypt has been described by the United Nations as “unprecedented”.
 
The United States and the European Union have decried the mass convictions as well, but Egypt rejected the criticism, terming it “unacceptable interference in the judiciary affairs”.