Badie sentenced to death for third time

Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 13 others were sentenced to death on Monday, marking the third time the judiciary has ordered Badie's execution since 2013.

The Cairo Criminal Court found the men guilty of establishing an operations room to instruct Brotherhood members to confront the authorities and spread chaos after the deadly dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square sit-ins in August 2013.

The judge has requested the grand mufti’s approval of the sentence, though the spiritual leader’s recommendation is not legally binding.  The judiciary is scheduled to issue its final ruling on April 11, the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

The Minya Criminal Court gave Badie his first death sentence for inciting violence at the Edwa Police Station in Minya. The same court then issued another death penalty against Badie for violent actions committed against police forces and civilians in the aftermath of the sit-in dispersals.

The other defendants in Monday’s case included senior Brotherhood leaders Mahmoud Ghozlan and Salah Soltan.

Soltan’s son, Mohamed Soltan, is among the 51 other defendants also implicated in the case, who have yet to be sentenced. He has been on hunger strike since January 2014 in protest against his detention, and is now in critical condition. Due to the extreme risk to his life, in January Soltan conceded to intense family pressure and agreed to switch to a partial hunger strike.

Soltan had been working in the United States when he moved back to Egypt in March 2013 to look after his mother after she was diagnosed with cancer. On August 25, 2013, police forces raided their home in search of his father, who was not there. Instead, they arrested Soltan and several of his friends.

Soltan was charged with belonging to a terrorist organization and conspiring to overthrow the government. Despite his deteriorating health condition, he has attended all his court sessions in an ongoing trial that has frequently been adjourned.