Egypt has delivered verdicts for more than 700 people over a pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-in after President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in 2013.<\/p>\n
The court confirmed 75 people’s death sentences and life imprisonment for 47 others, including Islamic leaders.<\/p>\n
Rights group Amnesty International has called the trial “grossly unfair” and a violation of Egypt’s constitution.<\/p>\n
Violence erupted at the 2013 protest in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya square, with hundreds killed by security forces.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year,\u00a0Egypt’s parliament gave military officers immunity for the deadly crackdown<\/a>\u00a0and any crimes committed between July 2013 and January 2016.<\/p>\n Those who were sentenced in the mass trial were accused of security-related offences including incitement to violence, murder and organising illegal protests.<\/p>\n The 75 death sentences were handed down in July<\/a>\u00a0and Saturday’s confirmation of them and the additional verdicts mark the end of the mass trial.<\/p>\n Prominent members and politicians in the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation were among those sentenced to life, including its Supreme Guide, Mohammed Badie.<\/p>\n Also indicted was award-winning photo-journalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, better known as Shawkan, who received a five-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n He was detained while taking pictures of the dispersal of the demonstration. He is expected to now walk free after having spent five years in jail pending trial.<\/p>\n Hundreds of people were arrested when the Egyptian army and police dispersed the pro-Morsi protest, which took place a month after the democratically-elected former president was ousted by the then military chief and current president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.<\/p>\n Rights groups have criticised the mass trial, and\u00a0Human Rights Watch has said the Egyptian security forces’ killing of at least 817 people probably amounted to a crime against humanity.<\/a><\/p>\n The government said many protesters were armed, and that eight police were killed – although it initially said more than 40 members of the security services had died. It has since declared the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist organisation”.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"