Egypt's top court upholds death sentences of 12 Brotherhood figures
The defendants were part of a mass trial of supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
An Egyptian court on Monday upheld the death sentences of 12 Muslim Brotherhood figures as part of a mass trial of hundreds charged in anti-government demonstrations in 2013.
After the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood-aligned supporters staged sit-ins at Cairo’s Rabaa and al-Nadha squares. Egyptian security forces in August 2013 opened fire on the protesters to disperse the crowds, killing at least 900 people and wounding thousands, according to Amnesty International.
In 2018, an Egyptian court sentenced 75 Morsi supporters to death in what rights groups said was a grossly unfair trial of 739 people alleged to have participated in the sit-ins. The rest of the defendants, including Morsi’s son, were issued prison sentences.
The Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi was a key figure, is considered a terrorist organization by Egypt’s current government led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Morsi, who had been in detention since his ouster, died after collapsing during a court appearance in 2019.
