12 July 2021; MEMO: Egypt's highest criminal court has upheld the life sentences issued against ten senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the group's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie. The life sentences were issued over their alleged role in helping foreign militias penetrate the country's eastern border amid the 2011 uprising to create chaos and bring down the Egyptian state and its institutions. The defendants have denied the accusations.
Besides Badie, the other nine defendants are Rashad Bayoumi, Mohei Hamed, Mohamed Saad Al-Katatni, Saad Al-Husseini, Mostafa Taher Al-Ghoneimi, Mohamed Zanati, Abdel Khalek Mansour, Mohamed Beltagi and Ibrahim Youssef.
The life sentences were initially handed down in 2019 against 11 defendants by a lower criminal court and have been confirmed by the Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation's rulings are final and cannot be appealed.
The eleventh defendant was Essam Al-Erian, who died in prison last year while serving another sentence, resulting in the expiry of the lawsuit against him.
The Court of Cassation has acquitted eight other members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the same case: Subhi Saleh, Ahmed Abou Mashour, Al-Sayed Hassan, Hamdy Hassan, Ahmed Diab, Ahmed Al-Agizi, Emad Shams Al-Din, and Ali Ezz Al-Din.
Since the 2013 coup that toppled late President Mohamed Morsi, scores of Muslim Brotherhood members, as well as other opponents of the post-2013 ruling regime, have received harsh sentences in trials described by human rights groups as "political". The government declared the group a terrorist organisation following the coup in 2013, banning it in 2014.
