Egypt Court upholds death sentence for 12 senior Muslim Brotherhood members
Cairo (Egypt): The highest civilian court of Egypt on Monday upheld the death sentences of 12 senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood over a 2013 sit-in which ended with security forces killing hundreds of protesters. The ruling now cannot be appealed against meaning the 12 members can face execution pending President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s approval.
The 12 members whose death sentences have been upheld by the court include Abdul Rahman Al-Bar, commonly described as the group’s mufti or top religious scholar, Mohamed El Beltagi, a former member of parliament, and Osama Yassin, a former minister.
Many Muslim Brotherhood figures have been sentenced to death in other cases related to the unrest that followed the military’s ousting of Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi in 2013, but the Court of Cassation ordered retrials.
Monday’s ruling relates to a mass trial of hundreds of suspects accused of murder and incitement of violence during pro-Brotherhood protests at Rabaa Adawiya square in Cairo in the weeks after Mursi’s overthrow.
In September 2018, an Egyptian court had awarded death sentences to 75 people and had handed varying jail terms to over 600 others. Of the 75 people, 44 had appealed against the ruling in the Court of Cassation and had their death sentence changed to life in prison. Death sentences for the 12 members were upheld.
A final defendant, the senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian, died in prison in Cairo in August 2020. Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, died in prison in 2019.
The court also upheld jail terms for many other defendants including a life sentence for Mohamed Badie, leader of the outlawed Brotherhood, and a 10-year jail term for Mursi’s son Osaama, the judicial sources said.
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Ranchi: Temple guard bludgeoned to death during robbery attempt, 3 held
Ranchi (PTI): A 60-year-old security guard of a temple in Ranchi was bludgeoned to death with a stone during a robbery attempt, police said on Saturday.
The incident happened late on Thursday at the Jagannath Temple in the Dhurwa Smart City area, they said.
"Three persons were arrested on Friday for killing the security guard. They confessed to the crime and told police that the victim had identified them. Therefore, in fear of being caught, they killed him by attacking him with a stone on his head," SSP Rakesh Ranjan said.
"Thereafter, they took money from the donation box and fled the scene. Two of them have criminal antecedents," he added.
Ranjan said the investigators recovered Rs 3 lakh in cash that had been robbed, the stone with blood-stained marks, and the iron rod used to break open the lock of the donation box kept there.
An FIR in this regard was lodged at the Dhurwa police station, he said, adding that the accused were sent to judicial custody by a court.
