CAIRO: An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced to death four members of the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood over the killing of protesters who stormed the group’s Cairo headquarters in June last year.
A crowd of angry protesters stormed and torched the headquarters on June 30, 2013, as millions took to the streets in Cairo and other cities demanding Islamist president Mohamed Mursi’s resignation.
A Cairo court sentenced the four men to death after finding them guilty of “killing, inciting to kill, possessing guns and live ammunition and joining armed groups to terrorise people,” a judicial official said.
Prosecutors said 12 protesters were killed when they clashed with Mursi supporters during the storming of the offices. More than 90 protesters were wounded.
Yesterday’s sentences are preliminary and will be forwarded to the country’s mufti, or top Muslim cleric, to be ratified.
Decisions on 14 other defendants in the case, including Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie and his deputies Khairat Al Shater and Saad Al Katatni, will be made at the next hearing on February 28, the official said.
AFP
