12 Sep 2019; MEMO: Cairo Criminal Court yesterday sentenced 11 senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Supreme Guide Mohammed Badei, to life sentence in prison for alleged spying for Hamas, Quds Press reported.
Former Parliament Speaker Saad al-Katatni, deputy Brotherhood Guide Khairat Al-Shater, Issam Al-Aryan, Mohammed Al-Beltajo were among those sentenced.
The late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was indicted in the case.
Morsi became Egypt’s first freely-elected Egyptian President in 2012. The military overthrew him in 2013 in a military coup carried out by his defence minister Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Taking over power, Al-Sisi outlawed the Brotherhood and arrested and killed thousands of its supporters. Others who spoke up against abuses of power by the Sisi regime have since been accused of membership in the group and detained without trial.
The court also sentenced three other officials from Morsi’s office to ten years imprisonment on the same charges. Two others received seven-year sentences, and five others were acquitted.
The rulings can be appealed within 60 days.
