An Egyptian court has struck down a death sentence passed by a lower tribunal against an ousted Islamist president for his part in a mass prison break during the 2011 uprising.

The Court of Cassation’s ruling means Mohamed Morsi will be given a new trial, alongside five other leaders of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, whose death sentences in the same case were also quashed.

The court also struck down life sentences passed in the same case against 21 Brotherhood members.

Last month, a court upheld a 20-year sentence for Morsi on charges arising from the killing of protesters in December 2012. He was ousted by the military in 2013 after just one year in office. </s> An Egyptian appeals court has overturned a death sentence handed down against ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsy in one of four trials since his 2013 overthrow, a judicial official said.

The Court of Cassation ordered that Morsy be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising which toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

Five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, who also received death sentences in June 2015, will be retried too.

Nearly 100 others who were tried in absentia are unaffected by the appeals ruling.

Last month, the same appeals court upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Morsy in April in a separate trial on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.

Morsy has also been sentenced to life in prison in two other trials.

In one, he was convicted of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

In the other, he was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them over to Qatar, a longstanding supporter of the Brotherhood.

He was toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.

The Brotherhood has since been blacklisted and subjected to a crackdown that has killed hundreds of his supporters and jailed thousands. </s> Egypt's highest appeals court has upheld death sentences for four people over forming a "terrorist cell" to plot attacks on security forces and other institutions.

The court of cassation on Sunday also rejected an appeal by 14 other defendants against sentences of 15 years imprisonment in February over similar charges including joining an outlawed group, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. The verdict is final.

Six defendants in the case were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia. They remain at large and will be re-tried once they are apprehended.

Egypt has cracked down on suspected Islamists since the military ousted president Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood in 2013.

Since then, hundreds of Islamists, including Brotherhood members, have been sentenced to death. The authorities have carried out dozens of executions. </s> An Egyptian appeals court today cancelled the death sentence handed out to ousted President Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and ordered a retrial in connection with a mass jail break during the country’s 2011 uprising.

The Court of Cassation also cancelled life sentences for 21 others in the same case.

Five co-defendants, including Badie, who also received death sentences in June 2015, will be retried too.

Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death in June 2015 for escaping from Wadi al-Natroun prison, damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder charges, looting weapons and allowing prisoners to break out of jails during the January 2011 revolution.

Morsi was sentenced to life in prison in two other trials. He was convicted of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

In another case, Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them to Qatar.

Morsi came to power after Egypt’s long-time President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

He was toppled by the current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests. </s> An Egyptian court has sentenced 75 prominent members and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, as part of a mass trial that includes 739 people charged after the violent dispersal of a protest camp in support of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The majority of protesters who died in the dispersal at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo were pro-Morsi protesters and Brotherhood members and affiliates. They had staged a sit-in days before Morsi was ousted by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in a military coup on 3 July 2013, and continued the protest until it was violently dispersed on 14 August 2013.



The 75 face the death penalty for a range of offences, from murder to “incitement to break the law”, membership of a banned group or being part of an illegal gathering.

The verdict, by judge Hassan Farid el-Shami, was announced on Saturday in Cairo’s heavily fortified Tora prison courthouse, in a trial Amnesty International has condemned as “a grotesque parody of justice”.

Among those who received death sentences were senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian, politician Mohamed el-Beltagy, Salafi preacher Safwat Hegazy, former youth minister Osama Yassin and cleric Abdel-Rahman el-Barr.

The court also sentenced the group’s supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, in addition to 46 others, to life in prison.

Five defendants died during the legal process. A total of 374 defendants, mainly Morsi suppporters, were given 15 years in detention, while Osama Morsi, the son of the detained former president, as well as 21 others, were sentenced to 10 years.

The judge also sentenced 215 defendants, including photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, to five years, causing dozens of defendants in the soundproof cage to rejoice.

“He [Shawkan] already spent five years, which means he will get out,” lawyer Karim Abdel Rady wrote on Twitter, adding that despite the release Shawkan will be on probation for another five years.

“Assuming that they [Shawkan and the other 214 defendants] have not been sentenced in other cases or that they are not held in pre-trial detention in other cases, they should be released,” Amnesty International’s Egypt campaigner, Hussein Baoumi, told the Guardian.

“This raises an important point, which is the practice of prolonged pre-trial detention, which is so commonplace in the Egyptian legal system and effectively [renders] defendants in Egypt guilty until proven otherwise,” Baoumi added.

Several others as well as Shawkan have already spent five years in detention, two years of which were spent during the prosecution’s investigations, and all the verdicts can be appealed. Shawkan, who was arrested in 2013, went to cover the raid on the protest camp at Rabaa for the UK-based photo agency Demotix.

He was frequently pictured during the trial posing as though he was holding a camera in the defendants’ cage, an attempt to demonstrate to the world that Egypt had incarcerated a journalist for doing their job. Egypt is currently ranked 161 out of 180 countries for journalistic safety and freedom of the press by Reporters Without Borders.

The final verdict ended a prolonged period of pre-trial detention, long past the two-year legal limit in Egypt, amid a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group as well as all political opposition to the rule of Sisi.

“The trial from the start lacked any standards of a fair trial. This is a classic example of why Egypt needs to abolish the death penalty,” said Baoumi.

Saturday’s case is one of dozens that were brought after the Rabaa massacre, with thousands of Brotherhood members and affiliates accused of committing acts of terrorism and violence.

Outside the courthouse, a female relative of former youth minister Osama Yassin, who was sentenced to death, said the verdicts were “absurd and unfair”. “They were the ones getting killed in Rabaa, yet they are the ones now being trialled and given death sentences.”

Baoumi said that the court had not approved all the requested witnesses. “The defence wanted to summon around 230-240 witnesses, but the court only approved 50-60 witnesses. He added that the “judge refused to admit into evidence several CDs that were were favourable to the defence”.

Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 817 people were killed on 14 August 2013, when Egyptian security forces attacked the camp at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo, in an act the watchdog labelled “likely crimes against humanity”. </s> A court in Egypt’s Cairo on Saturday sentenced 75 members and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to death in a mass trial of 739 people who had held protests in favour of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. All the accused were charged after authorities violently dispersed the protest at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo on August 14, 2013, killing hundreds.

The 75 sentenced to death face several charges, from murder and “incitement to break the law” to “membership of a banned group” and “being part of an illegal gathering”, The Guardian reported. The most prominent figures who were handed the death penalty were senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian, politician Mohamed el-Beltagy, Salafi cleric Safwat Hegazy, former Youth Minister Osama Yassin and cleric Abdel-Rahman el-Barr.

The court also sentenced the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, and 46 others to life imprisonment.

As many as 374 accused, mostly Morsi supporters, were sentenced to 15 years in detention. Osama Morsi, the son of the detained Mohamed Morsi and 21 others were jailed for 10 years. As many as 215 accused, including photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, were sentenced to five years in jail.

Rights group Amnesty International had earlier called the trial “grossly unfair” and “a grotesque parody of justice”. The 2013 Egyptian coup saw of the end of the Muslim Brotherhood’s government, and brought Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power. </s> CAIRO: An Egyptian court Saturday sentenced to death 75 Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and referred what was the largest single case of capital punishment convictions to the country's top religious authority.

Egyptian law requires the grand mufti to be consulted on death sentence cases, although his opinion is not legally binding and those convicted still have the right to appeal. Those found guilty were among 713 defendants on trial for killing policemen and vandalising property during 2013 clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Senior Brotherhood members Mohamed el-Baltagui, Issam al-Aryan and Safwat Hijazi were in the dock, while 31 others were tried in absentia. Also on trial was prominent photojournalist Mahmud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, who in May received UNESCO´s Press Freedom Prize. The court postponed a verdict on his and other cases.

On August 14, 2013, one of the bloodiest days in Egypt´s modern history, a month after the army ousted Morsi, police moved to disperse a sprawling Islamist protest camp at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo.

About 700 people were killed within hours at Rabaa al-Adawiya and the capital's Nahda Square where another sit-in was being held. Hundreds more were killed in street clashes with police over several months after the August carnage and mass arrests were carried out. </s> The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Wednesday executed nine suspected Muslim Brotherhood members convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of the country’s top prosecutor, security officials said.

The nine were found guilty of taking part in the bombing that killed Hisham Barakat, the first assassination of a senior official in Egypt in a quarter century. Barakat was also the most senior official killed since the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media, said the families of the men were told to pick up their bodies from a Cairo morgue.

A total of 15 people have been executed in Egypt since the start of the year. Three were hanged earlier this month for their involvement in the 2014 killing of a judge’s son in the Nile Delta town of Mansoura. Authorities executed another three for killing a police officer in Cairo in September 2013. Rights groups decried the executions, saying the men were sentenced to death following torture and beatings to extract confessions.

According to rights groups, authorities have executed at least 165 people since July 2013, including at least 32 between January and November 2018.

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Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Egypt to halt the latest executions, saying that some defendants said they were forcibly disappeared and confessed under torture.

“There is no doubt that those involved in deadly attacks must be prosecuted and held accountable for their actions, but executing prisoners or convicting people based on confessions extracted through torture is not justice,” said Amnesty’s Najia Bounaim.

Egypt’s highest appeals court upheld the death sentences in November. It commuted six other death sentences to life in prison. Death sentences were also handed down in 2017 to 13 defendants tried in absentia. They will be eligible for a new trial if they surrender or are captured. Turkey deported one of the 13 last month.

The Muslim Brotherhood was Egypt’s best-organized opposition movement for decades and won a series of elections after an Arab Spring uprising in 2011 ended President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly three-decade rule.

But President Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure elected in 2012, proved divisive, and the military removed him from power amid mass protests against his rule a year later.

Since then, authorities have waged an extensive crackdown on Islamists, arresting and detaining thousands and sentencing them to harsh prison terms. The Brotherhood has been banned and declared a terrorist group.

Islamic militants have, meanwhile, stepped up attacks since Morsi’s 2013 overthrow. An Islamic State affiliate based in the northern Sinai Peninsula has repeatedly targeted security forces and the Christian minority. Another group, known as Hasm, which has targeted security forces, has been linked to the Brotherhood.

The assassination of Barakat recalled one of Egypt’s darkest chapters, when Islamic militants and the state security apparatus engaged in retaliatory killings for nearly a decade starting in 1990. That year, the militants gunned down Parliament speaker Rifaat el-Mahgoub in Cairo, the last assassination of a senior official. There were attempts against other ministers until the insurgency was crushed in the late 1990s.

Also on Wednesday the military said in a statement that security forces killed eight suspected militants and destroyed seven hideouts and weapons depots and two car bombs in the restive north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The military statement gave no time frame for the recent operations. It wasn’t possible to independently confirm the details as access to northern Sinai is heavily restricted.

Wednesday’s statement came days after the Islamic State claimed an attack on an army checkpoint in northern Sinai left 15 troops and seven militants dead.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years. Last year, the government launched a broad security operation focused on northern Sinai, where an Islamic State affiliate has carried out many attacks in recent years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. </s> An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced 75 Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood leaders to death in what was referred to as the largest single case of capital punishment convictions by the country’s top religious authority.

Egyptian law requires the grand mufti to be consulted on death sentence cases, although his opinion is not legally binding and those convicted still have the right to appeal.

Those found guilty were among 713 defendants on trial for killing policemen and vandalising property during 2013 clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Senior Brotherhood members Mohamed el-Baltagui, Issam al-Aryan and Safwat Hijazi were in the dock, while 31 others were tried in absentia.

Also on trial was prominent photojournalist Mahmud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, who in May received UNESCO’s Press Freedom Prize. The court postponed a verdict on his and other cases.

On August 14, 2013, one of the bloodiest days in Egypt’s modern history, a month after the army ousted Morsi, police moved to disperse a sprawling Islamist protest camp at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo.

About 700 people were killed within hours at Rabaa al-Adawiya and the capital’s Nahda Square where another sit-in was being held.

Hundreds more were killed in street clashes with police over several months after the August carnage and mass arrests were carried out.

Global rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say at least 40,000 people were arrested within the first year of Morsi’s ouster on July 3, 2013.

Egypt’s courts have sentenced to death or lengthy jail terms hundreds of people after speedy mass trials, including Morsi and several leaders of his Brotherhood movement.

Many have appealed and won retrials but 26 executions have been carried out.

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Egypt's court of cassation overturns the death sentence on Mohamed Morsi and five other members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The court orders a retrial of six men for their roles in releasing the prisoners from the Wadi el-Natrun prison.