EGYPT-MURSI/COURT DEATH SENTENCE Egypt court sentences Mursi to death in 2011 jail break case

Record ID: 151366

  • Title: EGYPT-MURSI/COURT DEATH SENTENCE Egypt court sentences Mursi to death in 2011 jail break case
  • Date: 16th June 2015
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (JUNE 16, 2015) (REUTERS) COURTROOM/MEDIA SITTING/ COURT OFFICIAL STANDING BEHIND JUDGES BENCH VARIOUS OF FORMER PRESIDENT MOHAMED MURSI IN HOLDING CELL (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PRESIDING JUDGE, SHAABAN AL SHAMY, SAYING: "In the presence of the defendants [the court orders] punishing defendants Mohamed Badie Abdel Maguid Thabet, Rashad Mohamed Aly Al bayoumi, Mohy
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8QDN8D6I1YJNR4XL8NDETO1AL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: An Egyptian court sentenced deposed President Mohamed Mursi to death on Tuesday (June 16) over a mass jail break during the country's 2011 uprising and issued sweeping punishments against the leadership of Egypt's oldest Islamic group.
    The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and four other Brotherhood leaders were also handed the death penalty. More than 80 others were sentenced to death in absentia.
    "In the presence of the defendants [the court orders] punishing defendants Mohamed Badie Abdel Maguid Thabet, Rashad Mohamed Aly Al bayoumi, Mohy Hamed Mohamed Al Sayed Ahmed, Mohamed Saad Tawfik mostafa Al Katatny, Mohamed Mohamed Eissa Mursi Al Ayat, Essam Al Din Mohamed Hussein Al Erian death by hanging for the crimes they committed," said presiding judge Shaaban Al Shamy.
    Wearing his blue prison suit, a bespectacled and bearded Mursi listened calmly as Shami read out the verdict.
    Shami had earlier given the former president a 25-year sentence in a case relating to conspiring with foreign groups.
    The Brotherhood described the rulings as "null and void" and called for a popular uprising on Friday (June 19).
    The sentences were part of a crackdown launched after an army takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Since Mursi's overthrow, Egyptian authorities have waged a crackdown on Islamists in which hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.
    The Islamist Mursi became Egypt's first democratically elected president after the downfall of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011 but was himself overthrown by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
    Judge Shaaban el-Shami, said the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, had said in his opinion that the death sentence was permissible for the defendants who had been referred to him.
    Mursi appeared unfazed, smiling, and waving to lawyers as other defendants chanted: "Down, down with military rule," after the verdicts, which can be appealed, were read out at the court session in the Police Academy.
    The rulings mark another setback for leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and increase the chances of its youth taking up arms against the authorities, breaking what the group says is a long tradition of non-violence.
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