(AFP File Photo)
Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 14 other prominent group leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment Monday for murder and inciting violence during July 2013 clashes.
The Giza Criminal Court sentenced Badie, Mohamed Al-Beltagy, Safwat Hegazy and Essam El-Erian on various charges that included links to a terrorist organisation and planning to spread chaos in the country.
Badie has already received life sentences and death penalties in other cases.
Many supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and those affiliated with the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood face allegations of torture and violence.
On 9 September, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Al-Beltagy and Hegazy to 20 years in jail charged with kidnapping and torturing two policemen at the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in and leading a terrorist group.
Last July, a Cairo court sentenced five Morsi supporters to five years imprisonment, charged with unlawfully detaining and torturing a man in the 2013 Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in.
Last March, the Alexandria Criminal Court ratified the death sentence of an alleged Morsi supporter. The accused faced charges of stabbing and throwing a child off the roof of a building in Alexandria during the fatal clashes that occurred in July 2013.
Amnesty International issued a statement in August 2013, arguing there is “evidence, including testimonies from survivors, [which] indicates that supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi tortured individuals from a rival political camp”.
The statement added that victims were captured, beaten, subjected to electric shocks or stabbed by individuals loyal to Morsi.
In July 2013, a report by the forensic medicine department stated that a body found in the area of Rabaa Al-Adaweya showed signs of torture.
