An Egyptian court today sentenced banned Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and three others to life in prison for planning attacks against the country by inciting chaos and violence.
On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces raided protest camps at Rabaa al-Adawiya square and al-Nahda square in Cairo. The sit-ins were being held by supporters of Mohammed Morsi who had been ousted as president a month earlier. At least 800 and possibly many more were killed that day.
Badie, the supreme guide of the banned outfit, and three other Brotherhood members were convicted of setting up an "operation room" to direct their supporters as part of plans to defy the state and spread violence and chaos, following the dispersal of Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins in August 2013 by police.
Ninety-three defendants are also being tried for inciting chaos and violence.
The court also sentenced 12 defendants to life in prison in absentia and 77 to 15 years of intensive prison. One defendant died before the trial so his charges were dismissed.
Since Morsi's ouster in 2013, the Egyptian government has launched a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. The Muslim Brotherhood was designated as a terrorist organisation in November 2013 by the Egyptian government.
Some 22,000 people have been arrested, including most of the Brotherhood's leaders, since Morsi's ouster in July 2013.
Morsi is in prison over charges of killing peaceful protesters, espionage and escaping from prison during the January 25 Revolution in 2011 that toppled Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak.
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