The Appeals Court granted on Saturday the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, along with 13 other high- and low-ranking leaders, a retrial in what is known as the “Istiqamah Mosque” case.
The court ordered that the cases be looked at by another bench, citing flaws in the investigations.
In June 2013, controversial Judge Nagy Shehata handed the defendants death sentences. It was based on the testimony of one national security officer that the Brotherhood members were held responsible for the shootings that took place at the mosque, located in the Giza governorate.
On the same day, the Appeals Court also upheld a 20-year sentence on former president Mohamed Morsi and 14 others in the case of killing protesters during the 2012 clashes outside Itihadiya Palace.
Morsi, who was also found guilty in June 2015 in the 2011 jailbreak case, for which he received the death penalty, is currently being tried in several other cases.
Morsi came to power in 2012 and was Egypt’s first democratically elected president. However, on 30 June 2013, protestors took to the streets demanding his ouster. The Egyptian armed forces ousted Morsi on 3 July 2013, in what Morsi’s supporters described as a “military coup”.
