Egypt sentences 4 Muslim Brotherhood members to death

An Egyptian court has sentenced four members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death as part of the government’s intensifying crackdown on supporters of ousted president, Mohamed Morsi.

The defendants are charged with the killing of a dozen protesters who stormed the group’s headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in June last year.

A crowd of angry anti-government protesters stormed and torched Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters on June 30, 2013, as they flooded to the streets across Egypt, calling for the resignation of Morsi.

The Cairo court on Sunday sentenced the four Brotherhood’s members to death after finding them guilty of “killing, inciting to kill, possessing guns and live ammunition and joining armed groups to terrorize people,” a judicial official said.

Sunday’s sentences are preliminary and will be forwarded to Egypt’s top Muslim cleric to be ratified.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the country’s current president and the then army commander.

Morsi and 35 Muslim Brotherhood leaders are currently standing trial for the ‘destabilization’ of Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been blacklisted as a terror organization by the new Egyptian government.

The government of president Sisi is accused of leading the suppression of Brotherhood supporters as hundreds of them have been killed in clashes with security forces since the ouster of Morsi in a military coup in July 2013.

Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left at least 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while some 200 people have been sentenced to death in mass trials.

The UN Human Rights Council has repeatedly expressed concern over the heavy-handed crackdown and killing of peaceful anti-government protesters by Egyptian security forces.