Egypt sentences Muslim Brotherhood chief and 65 others to life in prison
An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced 66 people to life in prison, including Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie, over an August 2013 attack on a police station in Minya.
Death sentences were meted out to 183 people over the deadly attack on the police station in the southern province before a retrial was ordered.
On Sunday, around 700 people were tried again in this case, defence lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsood told AFP.
Sixty-six of the 700 were sentenced to life imprisonment - which is 25 years in Egypt - 288 were acquitted, six have died since the first trial and the rest were sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison.
Badie, 75, was on Sunday convicted of inciting his supporters to violence in the Minya case following the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Badie, on trial in 35 cases related to the Brotherhood, has been sentenced to death in several of them but the verdicts have been overturned by the court of cassation. He got life sentences in more than five cases.
On 11 September, an Egyptian judicial committee announced an asset freeze on more than 1,000 charities tied to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, as well as those of hospitals and individuals.
The funds of 1,133 charities were to be frozen, the committee said in a statement, as well as numerous other entities it said were owned by the Brotherhood.
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested since the military ousted Morsi.
Elected after the 2011 uprising against president Hosni Mubarak, Morsi served as president for a year before being toppled after mass protests against his divisive rule.
His successor is former military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose government has been accused of a campaign of repression to wipe out dissent.
The government has rejected the allegations, saying its priority is to reform the economy and fight "terrorism," accusing its detractors of seeking to harm Egypt's interests.
On 8 September, a Cairo court sentenced 75 people to death, including other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The verdicts drew condemnation from human rights groups.
The Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed and designated a terrorist organisation in Egypt in December 2013, months after the military ousted president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against his rule.
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