CAIRO (AFP) – An Egyptian court on Monday upheld death sentences for 12 Muslim Brotherhood members, including two senior leaders of the outlawed movement, a judicial official said.
The court of cassation also reduced sentences for 31 other Brotherhood members, in the trial relating to a 2013 mass killing by security forces at a sit-in, to life in prison, the official told AFP.
Those condemned to death were convicted of “arming criminal gangs which attacked residents and resisted policemen as well as possessing firearms and ammunition... and bomb-making material,” the court said in its ruling.
Other charges include “killing policemen... resisting authorities... and occupation and destruction of public property”, it added.
The rulings are final and cannot be appealed, the judicial source said.
Egypt’s former president Mohamed Morsi, head of the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, held power for a year before being ousted by the military in 2013.
Egyptian authorities outlawed the group in 2013 and have overseen a wide-ranging crackdown that has jailed thousands of its supporters.