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On Saturday, an Egyptian court handed out a yearlong jail sentence to Islamist leader Mohammed al-Beltagui and deposed President Mohammed Morsi, both standing on trial for murder, for insulting a state prosecutor, judicial sources said. Mohammed al-Beltagui, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member, and Mohammed Morsi were both in attendance on Saturday, standing trial for inciting the deaths of opposition members protesting outside the Presidential Palace in December 2012. The trial is a part of an uncompromising crackdown on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, which started after July 3, when the military ousted him and brought to an end a troubled year in office.
According to sources, Beltagui is currently in custody along with several other Brotherhood leaders, and has been condemned for “insulting” a prosecutor during the hearing. This would be the first time a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood has been handed out a jail sentence after the oust of Mohammed Morsi. Mohammed Abu Leila, Beltagui’s lawyer, said that the sentence, like other such sentences, can’t be appealed.
Mohammad Morsi and Mohammed al-Beltagui also face charges of espionage and jailbreak in two other cases, and if found guilty, could face the death penalty; both of them are accused of attacking police stations and organizing jailbreaks during the 2011 uprising which resulted in the ousting of Hosni Mubarak. Prosecutors allege that the jailbreaks and police station attacks are a part of a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to incite chaos. Morsi and 35 other people in the espionage trial are accused of conspiring with Shiite Iran to destabilize Egypt, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and other foreign powers.
The police crackdown on Morsi sympathizers has led to the deaths of over 1,400 people, according to rights group Amnesty International. As many as 15,000 Islamists, most of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been jailed, with hundreds already sentenced to death in speedy trials.
