Egypt court orders retrial for 77 Muslim Brotherhood supporters News
Egypt court orders retrial for 77 Muslim Brotherhood supporters

An Alexandria court of appeals on Monday ordered a retrial for 77 Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The defendants were charged [Ahram report] with murder, possession of weapons, rioting and a number of other criminal charges stemming from a July 2013 protest. They were sentenced [ET report] to five to 10 years in prison. The 2013 incident that gave rise to these charges took place during a protest of the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi [BBC profile]. Opponents, supporters and police clashed in the Al-Qaed Ibrahim Square in Alexandria.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters have faced continuous legal challenges since Morsi’s ouster. Last month Egyptian authorities arrested two senior Muslim Brotherhood officials [JURIST report] as they were allegedly attempting to flee the country. In August an Egyptian criminal court sentenced Mohamed Badie and 88 other Muslim Brotherhood members to life imprisonment [JURIST report] for their role in a 2013 attack on a police station. An Egyptian court upheld Morsi’s death sentence [JURIST report] in June after consulting the grand Mufti, Egypt’s highest religious figure and a government adviser on Islamic law. The death sentence was originally imposed [JURIST report] in May, with more than 100 other defendants sentenced to death in absentia. The sentences were ordered as a punishment for involvement in the 2011 uprising [JURIST backgrounder] and prison break that ousted then-president Hosni Mubarak [BBC profile].

THIS DAY @ LAW

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