The Court of Cassation, the highest court in Egypt, has approved the death sentence handed to 12 members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), including Muhammad al-Biltagui and Safwat Hegazy who were high ranking figures among them.
The Brothers had been sentenced to death for the crimes they had committed during the sit-in held by some 5,000 MB and their supporters in the Cairo Square of Rabaa al-Adawiya in 21 – 14 August 2013. The sit-in and its dispersal by the security forces left hundreds of policemen dead.
Following the 30 million-strong Egyptian Revolution on 30 June 2013, which toppled the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime that had come to power in the wake of the Arab Spring, MB supporters waged a six-week sit-in of more than 5,000 persons in Cairo’s Rabbaa al-Adawiya Square, and Giza’s Nahda Square. Higazy had then said that the MB would inflict upon Egyptians “terrorism they never dreamed existed”, and Beltagui had promised that the war against Egypt in Sinai would only end if [the MB Islamist post-Arab Spring president who was overthrown by the Revolution] Muhammad Mursi was back as president. They wrote on their websites that it was either that or “heads flying”. When the sit-ins were disbanded by the Egyptian Army and Police in August 2013, the MB retaliated by waging a terror war against Egyptians, particularly Copts, their churches and property, for their support of the Revolution.
[https://en.wataninet.com/watani-special-features/egypt-arab-spring/egypt-post-30-june/avalanche-of-hate/1292/ ]
[https://en.wataninet.com/watani-special-features/egypt-arab-spring/egypt-post-30-june/what-have-the-islamists-done-to-egypt/1437/ ]
In September 2018, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced 75 men to death and issued prison terms for more than 600 others. Many of them had been tried in absentia. Forty-four of those sentenced to death appealed to the Court of Cassation. Thirty-one had their sentences changed to life in prison, while death sentences were upheld for 12 others.
The court cancelled the death sentence against 31 defendants, and handed them sentences of life in prison instead. It upheld prison terms for other defendants including a life sentence for Mohamed Badie, leader of the outlawed MB, and a 10-year prison term for Osama, the son of Muhammad Mursi.
The case against one MB leader, Essam al-Erian (1954 – 2020), expired owing to his death.
Watani International
23 June 2021