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The Cairo Assize Court on Wednesday (September 11th) sentenced 11 leaders of the brotherhood of the Muslim Brotherhood to life imprisonment for spying for foreign organizations, Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah. Five other defendants received sentences ranging from 7 to 10 years in prison and 6 were acquitted.
With our correspondent in Cairo, Alexandre Buccianti
The Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie , and his deputy Khayrat el-Chater, as well as the former Speaker of Parliament, are among the lifers. Ex-President Mohamed Morsi was among the defendants, but was not sentenced for death.
The lawsuit is part of the anti-Muslim Brotherhood campaign launched by the government since the military dismissal of the brotherhood in July 2013. Many of the defendants are on their second life sentence. Some were even sentenced to death before the judgment was invalidated by the Court of Cassation.
If the new convictions are challenged by the Islamist opposition and human rights organizations, they are also challenged by the most ultra anti-Muslim Brotherhood. They consider the judgment too lenient and demanded the death penalty for " high treason ".