CAIRO - An Egyptian court confirmed death sentences on Saturday against the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 182 supporters in a mass trial of the Islamists who ruled Egypt for a year but face a fierce crackdown under the new president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
The Brotherhood leader, Mohamed Badie, and other defendants were charged in connection with violence that erupted in the southern town of Minya after the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader, last July. One police officer was killed in the violence.
The court's decision came two months after it referred the case against Mr. Badie, the spiritual leader of the now-outlawed Brotherhood, and 682 other defendants to a top religious authority, the first step in imposing death penalties. Those preliminary sentences set off outrage among Western governments and rights groups, with the United States and European Union both saying they were appalled by the rulings.
Since Mr. Morsi's overthrow, which was followed by protests by his supporters, hundreds of Islamist protesters have been killed and thousands jailed in a crackdown by security forces. Five hundred army and police officers have also been killed.
Mr. Sisi, the former military chief who won a presidential election last month, said before the vote that the Brotherhood was finished and would not exist under his rule.
Amnesty International described the verdicts as 'the latest example of the Egyptian judiciary's bid to crush dissent.'
There was no immediate reaction on the ruling from the Brotherhood, whose members are either in jail or on the run. The Brotherhood is Egypt's oldest, most organized and successful political group.
Outside the Minya court compound, around 200 people, mostly relatives of defendants who were freed, gathered to celebrate the ruling. 'Long live justice, long live Sisi,' they chanted.
Out of a total 683 defendants, about 100 are in detention and the rest were tried in absentia. Four were jailed for life while 496 were acquitted, according to judiciary sources. All verdicts can be appealed before a higher court.
'Those rulings are a continued farce,' the prominent Egyptian human rights activist and lawyer Gamal Eid said Saturday. 'And the state is still insisting that the judiciary is independent. I don't know how we can believe that when we see rulings like that. It is against logic and common sense. It is a joke.'
The United States has said that it would be unconscionable for Egypt to carry out mass death sentences against the Brotherhood, and that the government's actions would have consequences for resumption of suspended American military aid.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who is due to tour the Middle East this week, is expected to pay a brief visit to Egypt on Sunday, according to local Egyptian news media reports.
Egypt, the biggest Arab country, has been among the largest recipients of United States military and economic aid since its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Some of that support was put on hold after Mr. Morsi's overthrow, the latest round in a decades-old struggle between Egyptian authorities and the Islamist movement.
Mr. Badie, 70, was first jailed under President Gamal Abdel Nasser nearly 50 years ago.
The same court that sentenced Mr. Badie on Saturday had already confirmed death sentences of 37 Brotherhood supporters in rulings that were part of a final judgment on 528 Muslim Brotherhood supporters who received initial death sentences.
In a separate case, a Cairo court referred Mr. Badie and 13 Brotherhood supporters on Thursday to the Mufti, a top religious authority, on charges of murder and firearms possession related to clashes during the protests last July. Mr. Badie and other senior Brotherhood leaders, including Mr. Morsi, are standing trial in other cases.
The government's crackdown on the Brotherhood and on protests in general has not extinguished all public dissent. The police fired tear gas at dozens of mostly secular activists who rallied against anti-protest legislation near a presidential palace in Cairo on Saturday, witnesses said. They later detained 25 people, including seven journalists, according to a security official. In November, Egypt issued a law banning protests without police permission. Many liberal and Islamist activists have been arrested in the past few months for protesting without a license.
Entities 0 Name: Egypt Count: 6 1 Name: Badie Count: 5 2 Name: Morsi Count: 3 3 Name: United States Count: 3 4 Name: CAIRO Count: 3 5 Name: Muslim Brotherhood Count: 2 6 Name: Sisi Count: 2 7 Name: Egyptian Count: 2 8 Name: Brotherhood Count: 2 9 Name: Minya Count: 2 10 Name: Gamal Eid Count: 1 11 Name: Middle East Count: 1 12 Name: Mufti Count: 1 13 Name: Israel Count: 1 14 Name: Arab Count: 1 15 Name: Mohamed Badie Count: 1 16 Name: Gamal Abdel Nasser Count: 1 17 Name: American Count: 1 18 Name: Mohamed Morsi Count: 1 19 Name: European Union Count: 1 20 Name: John Kerry Count: 1 21 Name: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Count: 1 22 Name: Amnesty International Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: brotherhood Score: 82 1 Name: badie Score: 60 2 Name: egypt Score: 32 3 Name: egyptian Score: 28 4 Name: sentences Score: 28 5 Name: rulings Score: 26 6 Name: protesting Score: 24 7 Name: morsi Score: 24 8 Name: judiciary Score: 22 9 Name: islamist Score: 22 Authors Media Images 0
