The Mansoura Criminal Court sentenced four defendants to death and nine others to life imprisonment, on charges of forming a terrorist cell, state-run news agency MENA reported Wednesday.
The detainees, including one Palestinian, were charged with forming a group aiming to kill “Muslim Brotherhood opponents”, assaulting “revolutionaries” in Mansoura, and receiving military training outside Egypt. The death sentences for four defendants was originally issued in March, as the case’s documents were sent to the Grand Mufti pending approval.
Meanwhile, the International Coalition for Freedom and Rights (ICRF), which is inclined to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, claimed the defendants “were arrested before the occurrence of the crime they are accused with”.
The ICRF published details of the defendants’ arrests in 2013 as following: Amer Mosaad was arrested on 5 December; Ahmed Faisal was arrested outside his office on 4 November; and his brother Hany Faisal was arrested from his home on 28 November. The ICRF also reported that Abdulrahman Bayoumi “is the only one arrested after the occurrence of the crime. He was arrested at the airport when he was travelling to perform Umrah. He was forcibly disappeared for 13 days.”
The four names mentioned by the ICRF matched MENA’s news report on death sentences. The ICRF also claimed that the defendants were forcibly disappeared and underwent brutal torture at the state security buildings in Daqahleya.
“According to their families, they all confessed under brutal torture to crimes they did not commit, to charges of joining a terrorist group, sneaking into Gaza to receive military training from Hamas, and possessing weapons,” the ICRF said. Their case has become publicly known as the “Muslim Brotherhood’s deterrence cell” ,led by defendant Amer Mosaad.
The State Security prosecution carried out investigations for accusations of crimes between July 2013 to February 2014, according to several media reports. The investigations also found that the defendants in the case coordinated with foreign sources to travel to Gaza through the eastern borders and obtain military training.
Meanwhile, 116 court verdicts against “Muslim Brotherhood” supporters in 19 cases were issued on Thursday, all by the Mansoura Criminal Court, according to state media. They included eight acquittals of terrorism and violence charges, while the rest varied between death penalties for 24 people, and three years to life imprisonment, for crimes allegedly committed during pro-Muslim Brotherhood protests, mostly after July 2013.
