News / Egypt

Egypt court sentences 134 Morsi supporters to prison

Thursday, 17 December 2015 11:29 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 17 December 2015 12:02 PM ]

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood defendants stand behind bars during their trial, along with ousted President Mohamed Morsi (unseen), in Cairo, Egypt, June 16, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

A military court in Egypt has handed down jail terms of up to 25 years to 134 supporters of ex-President Mohamed Morsi over their alleged role in attack on police in 2013.

The court in the central Egyptian city of Asyut sentenced 108 people in absentia to life in prison and 26 others to 10 years in jail each.

The defendants were convicted of attacking a police station in the town of Mallawi, located in the province of Minya and south of Cairo, on August 14, 2013, when security forces dispersed two pro-Morsi rallies in the capital, killing hundreds of demonstrators.

Nine policemen were reportedly killed in the assault against the police station in Mallawi.

In this file photo, Egyptian security forces take up positions during clashes with stone-throwing pro-Morsi supporters around the area of Rabaa Adawiya Square, Cairo, Egypt. (Photo by Reuters)

In 2013, the Egyptian army started a systematic crackdown on Morsi supporters. Since his overthrow on July 3 that year, thousands of anti-government protesters, mostly Brotherhood supporters, have been sentenced to jail by civilian and military courts.

Hundreds of the ex-president’s supporters, and Morsi himself, have been sentenced to death.

Nearly 300 of the political detainees have died in detention facilities. Human rights activists say “deliberate and systematic medical negligence” on the part of prison authorities, torture, overcrowded prisons, and overall “unhealthy and inhumane” conditions imposed on more than 40,000 political prisoners in the detention facilities are the main causes of the deaths.

In this file photo, supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi carry a protester injured during clashes with riot police and the army in the area of Rabaa Adawiya Square in Cairo. (Photo by Reuters)

Rabaa massacre

On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces carried out deadly attacks on two camps of protesters in Cairo, one at al-Nahda Square and a larger one at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. The two sites had been occupied by the supporters of Morsi for weeks.

Human Rights Watch described the raids as “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”

The Muslim Brotherhood and National Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy (NCSL) claimed that the death toll from the Rabaa massacre alone was about 2,600 people. However, not a single authority in the country has been summoned to courts over the massacre.

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