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Egypt sentences 529 Mursi supporters to death | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A relative of a supporter of Egyptian ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, cries outside the courthouse on March 24, 2014 in the central Egyptian city of Minya, after the court ordered the execution of 529 Mursi supporters after only two hearings. (AFP Photo/STR)


A relative of a supporter of Egyptian ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, cries outside the courthouse on March 24, 2014 in the central Egyptian city of Minya, after the court ordered the execution of 529 Mursi supporters after only two hearings. (AFP Photo/STR)

A relative of a supporter of Egyptian ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, cries outside the courthouse on March 24, 2014 in the central Egyptian city of Minya, after the court ordered the execution of 529 Mursi supporters after only two hearings. (AFP Photo/STR)

Cairo, AP—A court on Monday sentenced 529 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi to death after convicting them on charges including the murder of a policeman, the attempted killing of two others and an attack on a police station, in what was one of Egypt’s largest mass trials in decades.

The majority of the defendants were tried in absentia but more than 150 stood trial in unprecedentedly rushed hearings that lasted only two days. Sixteen suspects were acquitted. The verdicts—and the extremely harsh sentences—are likely to be overturned on appeal, rights lawyers said after the trial ended in the city of Minya, south of Cairo.

“This is way over the top and unacceptable,” said attorney Mohammed Zarie, who heads a rights center in Cairo. “It turns the judiciary in Egypt from a tool for achieving justice to an instrument for taking revenge.”

He added: “This verdict could be a precedent both in the history of Egyptian courts and perhaps, tribunals elsewhere in the world.”

The mass nature of the trial testifies to the determination of Egypt’s military-backed government to break the Muslim Brotherhood group and leave no room for political reconciliation with the country’s largest Islamist bloc, from which Mursi hails. The court in Minya issued its ruling after only two sessions in which the defendants’ lawyers complained they had had no chance to present their case.

The violence was in response to the police crackdown on August 14 at two pro-Mursi sit-in camps in Cairo in which hundreds of people were killed, sparking days of unrest across the country.

Egypt’s military toppled Mursi in July, after four days of massive demonstrations by his opponents demanding that he step down for abusing power during his year in office.Since the ouster and the August dispersal of the Cairo sit-ins, Mursi’s Brotherhood and other Islamist supporters have staged near-daily demonstrations that have often descended into violent street confrontations with security forces.

The military-backed government has unleashed a wave of arrests, detaining hundreds of protestors, including top Brotherhood leaders. At the same time, militant bombings, suicide attacks and other assaults—mostly by an Al-Qaeda-inspired group—have increasingly targeted police and military forces in retaliation for the crackdown on Islamists.The authorities have blamed the Brotherhood for the violence, branding it a terrorist organization and confiscating its assets. The group has denied any links to the attacks and has denounced the violence.

On Tuesday, another mass trial against Mursi’s supporters is set to begin in Minya, with 683 suspects facing similar charges. The defendants will include Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, who also faces multiple other trials, and senior members of the Brotherhood from Minya.