Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld, on Sunday, the life imprisonment sentence handed down to Mohammed Badie, the Supreme Guide of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, and other Islamists.
Badie and the other defendants were charged in the case with storming the country’s eastern borders.
The case dates back to 2011 during the 25 January Revolution, when the Wadi El-Natrun Prison was stormed and security facilities attacked.
The prosecution charged the defendants in the case with: working with foreign elements to overthrow the Egyptian state and its institutions; training armed elements to commit hostile and military acts inside the country; and storming Egyptian prisons.
The court also acquitted the group’s leader, Sobhi Saleh, and seven others of the charges against them in the same case.
The Court of Cassation accepted the appeals filed by seven defendants, including Saleh, while it rejected the appeals of 11 other defendants, including Badei.
In September 2019, the Cairo Criminal Court issued its verdict, handing down sentences of life imprisonment to 11 defendants in a case that has become known as the “breaking into the eastern borders” case.
Since the ouster of former Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Egypt has been fighting acts of terrorism that have killed hundreds of policemen, soldiers, and civilians.
