Egypt sentences 102 Brotherhood supporters to 10 years

102 anti-coup activists in Egypt were sentenced to ten years in jail on Saturday on charges of killing and inciting violence, judicial sources said.

The verdicts for the 102 defendants, handed down ahead of a May 26-27 presidential election, relate to deaths that occurred during clashes in Cairo last July between supporters of elected president Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and security forces.

Two other Brotherhood supporters who were defendants in the case received seven-year jail sentences, the sources said. Only 35 defendants were present in court, the others were tried in absentia.

Violence has spiralled since last July, when the army toppled Morsi and the authorities launched a crackdown on his supporters in the Brotherhood. Thousands of the movement’s supporters have been arrested and hundreds killed, and its leaders are on trial.

Another Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the Brotherhood and 682 supporters to death earlier this week, intensifying the crackdown and drawing Western criticism.

Former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the ousting of Morsi, is expected to win the presidential election.

Egypt has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group, but Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement says it is committed to peaceful activism.

On Friday, two suicide bombings in Egypt’s South Sinai killed a soldier and wounded at least eight people and two other bombs killed two people in Cairo, official sources said.

Rebels based in the Sinai have stepped up attacks on security forces since the toppling of Morsi, killing hundreds in a fast-growing insurgency.

The violence and political tensions have hammered the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

World Bulletin / News Desk