Brotherhood Supreme Guide Badie, 18 others sentenced to life in prison

The Port Said Criminal Court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 18 others to life imprisonment for storming the Arab Police Station in Port Said, the state-owned Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.

The court also sentenced 76 people to life in prison in absentia and 28 others to 10 years in prison, acquitting 60 other defendants in the case.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders Mohamed al-Beltagy and Sawfat Hegazy were among those sentenced to life in prison.

Former General Prosecutor Hesham Barakat had referred the defendants to prosecution on August 16, 2013, on charges of participating in an armed mob attack on the Arab Police Station, as well as inciting acts of violence and murder.

The privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that investigations by the prosecution revealed that Badie and Beltagy incited the crowd to storm the police department and that five people, including police officers and soldiers, were killed in the attack.

The defendants were also accused of stealing arms from the police department and smuggling detainees out.

Badie has been sentenced to death three times since 2013.

The Minya Criminal Court first sentenced Badie to death for inciting violence at the Edwa Police Station in Minya. The same court sentenced Badie to death for a second time for violent acts committed against civilians and security forces following the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda square sit-ins.

His third sentence came in March 2015, when the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced him to death for establishing an operations room to direct Muslim Brotherhood members to confront security forces and spread chaos during the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in in August 2013.

Badie has also been sentenced life in prison six times in the same period. In the first sentencing, Giza Criminal Court found him and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders guilty of killing five people and injuring hundreds of others while attempting to organize protests in Giza on July 15, 2013. Badie was also sentenced to life in prison for his role Istiqama Mosque clashes, after which he received another life sentence for blocking the Qaylub road in a separate trial.

Since former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in July 2013 there has been a state-led crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, with security forces arresting and detaining thousands of alleged Brotherhood members. The organization was outlawed and designated a terrorist group in December 2013.