According to state media, a senior leader of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group has been convicted on “terror” charges and sentenced to life in prison.
According to the state-owned Middle East News Agency, a Cairo court on Thursday found Mahmoud Ezzat, the Muslim Brotherhood’s acting supreme guide, guilty of “terror acts” committed after the military overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
Ezzat was sentenced on charges of inciting violence and supplying firearms during clashes between supporters and opponents outside the Brotherhood’s headquarters in 2013, according to Reuters, citing a judicial source. In the same case, other senior members of the Brotherhood, the country’s oldest Islamist organization, were sentenced to life in prison.
Ezzat’s lawyer did not immediately respond. The Brotherhood claimed at the time of Ezzat’s arrest that he was being pursued on “false political charges.”
Last summer, 76-year-old Ezzat was apprehended after police discovered him hiding in an apartment on Cairo’s outskirts, the latest blow to the movement that has been the target of a crackdown.
A search of the apartment revealed computers and mobile phones with encrypted software that allowed Ezzat to communicate with group members in Egypt and abroad, according to authorities at the time. According to police, documents containing “destructive plans” were also discovered.
Ezzat had been on the run since the summer of 2013, when the military deposed Morsi, a Brotherhood member.
Morsi’s brief reign was divisive and sparked widespread protests across the country. In June 2019, the former president died after collapsing in court during one of his trials.
Following the crackdown on their organization, Ezzat and many of the group’s leaders were believed to have fled the country.
Ezzat was a powerful former deputy to Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie who was regarded as a hardliner within the organization. After Badie’s arrest in August 2013, he took over as acting leader.
He had previously been convicted of several “terror”-related crimes and sentenced to death in absentia twice. Following his arrest, he was retried in accordance with Egyptian law.
Other senior members of the group have either been imprisoned or have fled the country.
