BADIE SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS IN JAIL FOR ‘INSULTING THE JUDICIARY’

Cairo, 8 Safar 1436/1 December 2014 (MINA) – The Cairo Criminal Court yesterday sentenced Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Guide Mohammed Badie and 25 of the group’s leaders to three years in prison on charges of “insulting the judiciary”.

Judge Shaaban Al-Shami made the ruling during the hearing of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and 131 others who are on being tried on charges related to storming prisons after the outbreak of the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

Most of the prisoners were tried in absentia. The ruling included a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,398) per person.

Badie, 71, and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death as well as several jail terms. Many of them were previously sentenced to one year in prison on charges of insulting the judiciary.

Morsi was imprisoned while thousands of the Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters were arrested and sentenced to death in mass trials that have drawn international criticism.

The ruling comes only a day after an Egyptian court acquitted former President Hosni Mubarak of charges of killing hundreds of protestors during the January 25, 2011, revolution.(T/R04/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)