Egyptian court hands death sentences to 529 Morsi supporters

The court in Minya issued its ruling today after only two sessions in which the defendants’ lawyers complained that they had no chance to present their case. Those convicted are part of a group of 545 defendants on trial for the killing of a police officer, the attempted killing of two others, attacking a police station and other acts of violence.

More than 150 suspects stood trial; the others were tried in absentia. Sixteen were acquitted.

The defendants were arrested after violent demonstrations which were a backlash for the police crackdown in August on pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo in which hundreds of people were killed.

The verdicts – and the extremely harsh sentences – are likely to be overturned on appeal, lawyers said.

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

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

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 Morsi hails.

The rioting was a backlash for the August 14 police crackdown on two pro-Morsi sit-in camps in Cairo, which killed hundreds of people and sparked days of unrest across the country.

Egypt’s military toppled Morsi in July, after four days of massive demonstrations by his opponents demanding that he step down.