Egypt Sentences 3 Brotherhood Members to Death, 20 to Life in Prison

Previous trial of Muslim Brotherhood members accused in “violent incidents” in Egypt. (AFP)
Previous trial of Muslim Brotherhood members accused in “violent incidents” in Egypt. (AFP)
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Egypt Sentences 3 Brotherhood Members to Death, 20 to Life in Prison

Previous trial of Muslim Brotherhood members accused in “violent incidents” in Egypt. (AFP)
Previous trial of Muslim Brotherhood members accused in “violent incidents” in Egypt. (AFP)

An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced three of the banned Muslim Brotherhood members to death, 20 others to life in prison and one to nine years in jail in 18 different cases.

According to the indictment, the convicts attempted to assassinate a former criminal court judge in Fayoum and police officers.

In 2014, the Public Prosecution filed terror charges against Muslim Brotherhood leaders who operated the group’s secret apparatus, the Committee of Qualitative Operations, and assigned it to carry out assassinations and hostilities against public figures, army soldiers, employees in the Ministry of Interior and the judiciary who violated its orders.

The court’s presiding judge, Yasser Muharram Darweesh, said the defendants had planned to assassinate a criminal court judge in Fayoum, Tareq Abouzeid, while he was driving, but they mistakenly shot at a different vehicle.

They also killed two policemen in Fayoum and planted roadside bombs across much of the province, opened fire at a local police station and carried out surveillance of police officers they intended to assassinate.

The members of these terrorist cells shared tasks that included execution, surveillance and security when they carried out acts of sabotage and violence.

They also shared the tasks of preparing firearms, explosive devices and firebombs to use them in terrorist attacks.

In this context, the Court of Cassation upheld Tuesday prison sentences ranging between three and 15 years against 52 Brotherhood members after rejecting the appeals filed by their advocates. It also acquitted five others.

The convicts are accused of committing violent crimes, carrying out arson attacks, and vandalism on assaulting policemen and citizens, as well as attempted murder during the sit-ins at al-Adwa area in Minya Governorate after ousting former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The issued verdicts are final and cannot be appealed.



UNRWA Lebanon Says Not Impacted by US Aid Freeze or New Israeli Law

 Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
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UNRWA Lebanon Says Not Impacted by US Aid Freeze or New Israeli Law

 Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)

The director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon said on Wednesday that the agency had not been affected by US President Donald Trump's halt to US foreign aid funding or by an Israeli ban on its operations.

"UNRWA currently is not receiving any US funding so there is no direct impact of the more recent decisions related to the UN system for UNRWA," Dorothee Klaus told reporters at UNRWA's field office in Lebanon.

US funding to UNRWA was suspended last year until March 2025 under a deal reached by US lawmakers and after Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

The UN has said it had fired nine UNRWA staff who may have been involved and said it would investigate all accusations made.

Klaus said that UNRWA Lebanon had also placed four staff members on administrative leave as it investigated allegations they had breached the UN principle of neutrality.

One UNRWA teacher had already been suspended last year and a Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed in September in an Israeli strike - was found to have had an UNRWA job.

Klaus also said there was "no direct impact" on the agency's Lebanon operations from a new Israeli law banning UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and that "UNRWA will continue fully operating in Lebanon."

The law, adopted in October, bans UNRWA's operation on Israeli land - including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally - and contact with Israeli authorities from Jan. 30.

UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Its commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday that UNRWA has been the target of a "fierce disinformation campaign" to "portray the agency as a terrorist organization."