Egypt sentences 75 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death

Mass trial of 739 over Rabaa massacre branded ‘grotesque parody of justice’ by Amnesty

Adham Youssef in Cairo and Ruth Michaelson
Sat 8 Sep 2018 13.28 BST

An Egyptian court has sentenced 75 prominent members and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, as part of a mass trial that included 739 people charged after the violent dispersal of a protest camp in support of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Most of the protesters who died in the dispersal at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo were pro-Morsi protesters and Brotherhood members and affiliates. They had staged a sit-in days before Morsi was ousted by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in a military coup on 3 July 2013 and continued the protest until it was violently dispersed on 14 August 2013.

The 75 were given the death penalty for offences ranging from murder to incitement to break the law, membership of a banned group, or being part of an illegal gathering.

The verdict, by judge Hassan Farid el-Shami, was announced on Saturday in Cairo’s heavily fortified Tora prison courthouse, after a trial Amnesty International has condemned as “a grotesque parody of justice”.

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