Alwaght- Egypt's top court upheld on Wednesday a 2016 life sentence verdict against Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie and 35 others as the military backed regime continues crackdown on opposition.
The country's highest appeals court also upheld various jail terms against 20 others.
Out of the total 105 defendants in the original case, 49 were sentenced in absentia and 20 were found not guilty.
The defendants were charged with murder, attempted murder, inciting terrorism, raiding and vandalizing government facilities among other crimes related to deadly clashes between Muslim Brotherhood members and security forces in Ismailia in July 2013 days after the ouster of Mohamed Morsi. The clashes left three dead and tens injured in the Suez Canal governorate.
In September, a criminal court sentenced Badie to a life term over deadly violence which took place in Beni Suef governorate in Upper Egypt in August 2013 after security forces dispersed two Cairo sit-ins protesting the ouster of Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi himself has been sentenced to death.
Egypt’s military courts have been under fire by human rights groups for their harsh verdicts.
The Brotherhood has faced a crackdown since Morsi was ousted in the coup led by the then head of the armed forces and current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in July 2013.
Since the ouster of Morsi, thousands of anti-government protesters, mostly Brotherhood supporters, have been sentenced to jail by civilian and military courts.
The Brotherhood was later blacklisted as a terrorist organization by authorities in a bid to prevent its affiliates from running in elections.
