Egypt's Court of Cassation upheld life sentences against Supreme Guide of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie and two other senior members of the group, Mohamed al-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy, in the case dubbed "Arab Police Department" storming in Port Said.
The court sentenced six other people to 15 years in prison, three years in jail for another person, and acquitted 59 others.
The cases refer to the incident on August 16, 2013, when the convicts stormed the police department in Port Said with guns and weapons and assaulted police officers to avenge the toppling of former President Mohamed Morsi.
The convicts were on trial for killing five people and attempting to kill 70 others following the dispersal of the armed sit-in in the Rabaa al-Adawiya area in Cairo.
They were accused of inciting Brotherhood members to storm the Arab police station in Port Said, kill its officers and soldiers, steal the department's weapons, and set detainees free.
In August 2015, the Port Said Criminal Court issued verdicts convicting the defendants in the case, so they filed an appeal before the Court of Cassation. In 2017, the court overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial in one of the Port Said Criminal Court departments.
In a retrial in September 2020, the Port Said Criminal Court convicted the defendants again, and the sentence was upheld in the Appellate Court in 2021.
The Public Prosecution charged them with incitement to murder, attempted murder, forming an armed gang to attack the Arab Police Department, kill everyone inside it, and steal weapons.
The investigations stated that they misused funds and sabotaged public property in the Arab Police Department, owned by the Ministry of Interior.
The investigations indicated that the defendants possessed and obtained unlicensed weapons, personally and through an intermediary, with the intent of public security, as they possessed and received ammunition, explosives, knives, and tools that were used in the assault on people without a license and justification.
