An Egyptian court has sentenced 10 members of the Muslim Brotherhood group to death for allegedly coordinating and planning attacks on the police, charges which defendants and their families denied.
A Twitter account called Mr. Shalabokaaaa has recently tweeted about the verdict, saying:
The court orders death penalty for 10 defendants in the Helwan Brigades case. Sufficient for us is Allah, and [He is] the Best Disposer of Affairs!. The ten referred to the Mufti in the Helwan Brigades case are: (10 names…).
المحكمة تقضى بإعدام 10 متهمين في قضية كتائب حلوان حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل
— Mr. Shalabokaaa (@shalabyyyyyyyyy) January 30, 2022
العشرة المحالون للمفتي في قضية #كتائب_حلوان
اللهم انتقم اللهم اشد اشد انتقامك ???????? pic.twitter.com/5O83Ha4pou
According to Mr. Shalabokaaaa, the names of the 10 defendants are:
1- Yehya el-Sayed Ibrahim
2- Magdi Mohamed Ibrahim
3- Mahmoud Attia Ahmed Abdel Ghani
4- Abdel Wahab Mustafa
5- Mahmoud Abu Hasiba
6- Mohamed Ibrahim Hamed
7- Mosab Abdel Hamid Khalifa
8- Abdullah Nader
9- Abdel Rahman Eissa
10- Mahmoud el-Sayed Amin.
Nine of the ten have been already in custody while one was sentenced in absentia, a judicial source was cited as saying on Sunday by the AFP news agency.
The verdict will now be referred to the Grand Mufti, Egypt’s top theological authority – a formality in death penalty cases – before the court meets on June 19 to confirm the sentences.
Egypt carried out the third highest number of known executions in the world last year, after China and Iran, according to human rights groups.
The 10 who were sentenced to death were accused of forming a group called “Helwan Brigades”, MENA said, in reference to a city south of Cairo, with alleged plans to attack police targets in the Cairo area to topple the government.
Capital punishment for civilian convicts in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, is carried out by hanging.
According to Amnesty International, Egypt carried out the third highest number of known executions in the world last year, after China and Iran.
Cairo’s handing down of death sentences, or long jail terms after mass trials, have drawn condemnation from the United Nations and rights groups including Amnesty.
On Friday, the Biden administration announced that it would cancel $130m in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns, just days after the United States approved a huge $2.5bn arms sale to the country.
The State Department said on Friday that Egypt had not met the conditions to receive the $130m in foreign military financing that has been on hold since September.
Egypt has mounted one of the biggest crackdowns in its modern history on the Brotherhood following the army’s overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first freely-elected president, in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Morsi died in custody in June 2019 after falling ill during a court hearing.
The government considers the Brotherhood a “terrorist” organisation. The group has long said it is committed to peaceful change.
Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has established itself as the main opposition movement in Egypt despite decades of repression, and has inspired spinoff movements and political parties across the Muslim world.
