Minor clashes in Helwan as demonstrators protest Morsi death sentence

Security forces squared off against dozens of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated protesters in Cairo’s Helwan district this afternoon, after the demonstrators took to the streets to denounce the death penalty levied against former President Mohamed Morsi, the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

The protesters, some of whom were masked, gathered in front of the Istiqama Mosque after Friday prayers. They chanted slogans against the Armed Forces, the police and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as they brandished posters of Morsi and the black-and-yellow icon commemorating the deadly dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in in August 2013, Al-Masry Al-Youm said.

Police initially fired tear gas to disperse the demonstration, but when the protesters retaliated by shooting fireworks and pellet guns, security forces began firing birdshot into the crowd. They reportedly pursued the demonstrators into side streets around the mosque area in order to arrest them, according to the newspaper.

On May 16, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Morsi and several other Brotherhood leaders to death for espionage and escaping from Wadi al-Natroun prison in 2011. The judge has referred the sentences to the grand mufti for approval.

The sentences were handed down in two different cases. In the “prison break” case, Morsi was convicted alongside Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, deputy leader Mahmoud Ezzat, and former parliamentary speaker and Guidance Bureau members Mohamed al-Beltagy, Essam al-Erian and Saad al-Husseiny. More than 100 other defendants were also convicted in the case on charges including escaping from prison, helping other inmates to escape, attempted murder and murder.

The verdict has been roundly condemned by several international organizations, including Amnesty International.