Egypt: MB deputy leader ‘Mahmoud Ezzat’ sentenced to life in prison

An Egyptian court, on Sunday 17 April 2022, sentenced Dr. Mahmoud Ezzat, the deputy general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, to life in prison in a case known in the media as “storming Egypt’s eastern border”.

Since his arrest in 2020, Dr. Ezzat, 77,  has been handed sentences of a total of 75 years in prison in different cases.

In June 2015, Dr. Ezzat was also handed a death sentence in a case where 20 other defendants received the same sentence. The case included charges of “storming Egyptian prisons” and “assaulting and killing police officers during the 2011 revolution.”

In April 2021, Dr. Mahmoud Ezzat was also sentenced to life in prison over charges of murder and terrorism in a case known in the media as the “Guidance Bureau Case”.

Since the 2013 military coup, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has been carrying out an arrest campaign against all Muslim Brotherhood leaders and prominent figures.

“I don’t breath fresh air”

A leaked video of Dr. Mahmoud Ezzat from one of his trial sessions in late 2021, circulated on social media, revealed the tragic conditions he was subjected to in prison.

In the leaked video, the 77-year-old Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader told the judge: “Throughout this period, the cell only opens for a few seconds. Food is thrown to me through a small hole in the door, without allowing me to smell fresh air. I have been solitary confinement for 16 months.”

Dr. Ezzat revealed that he did not meet attorneys, he did not know whether they attended or not, and who they are to inform them of what he has to say so that they, in turn, inform the court.

He pointed out that “sometimes food is thrown at me from a hole at the top of the door, and I can only move or breathe air through these walls, which are the size of the cell.”

Dr. Ezzat added that his eyes were closed all the time when he was on his way to court, adding that he could not complete a minute in reading the statement of charges that were brought against him.

The Egyptian authorities arrested Ezzat on 28 August 2020.

The Muslim Brotherhood then called on the Egyptian authorities in a statement to provide all rights to its deputy leader Ezzat.

The Muslim Brotherhood said in a statement: “In the video circulated on social media, Mahmoud Ezzat explains to the judge the deprivation of all his legal and life rights.”