Nine sentenced to death by hanging for operations supporting ‘terrorist’ Muslim Brotherhood

A court sentenced nine people to death by hanging on Saturday as part of its verdict on 43 defendants in total accused of affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is classified as a terrorist organization in Egypt, and of conducting operations targeting the state, its facilities and personnel. 

The group on trial, referred to as the “revolutionary guards,” were just one of many convicted over recent years in relation to the period of contestation between state security forces and other groups in the wake of the military ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. 

According to news reports, a terrorism circuit of the State Security Criminal Prosecution also sentenced three other defendants to life imprisonment, 28 more to 15 years imprisonment with hard labor and three to 10 years imprisonment with hard labor. 

The ruling also stated that all of those convicted should remain under police surveillance following the completion of their sentences and that they be prohibited from residing in any of Egypt’s border governorates for five years. 

The defendants were investigated and tried for establishing a group in Agouza, Giza. Case documentation cited by US-owned outlet Al-Hurra said that the group funded the purchase of firearms and explosives, the rental of a residential unit used as organizational headquarters, used encrypted communication programs to avoid security surveillance, infiltrated a neighboring country, trained groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to manufacture explosives and use firearms and forged government documents. 

They were also reported to have conducted these operations with the aim of “harming the political and economic situation in the country with the intent to disturb the public peace, within the framework of the goals of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist group in Egypt in 2013 amid a security and judicial crackdown on the group and its members that saw tens of thousands arrested and exiled. 

The death penalty has been deployed extensively against scores of individuals in similar rulings against groups accused of acting against the state in the period since the ouster of Morsi.