25 Brotherhood members sentenced to life by Egypt court

An Egyptian court has sentenced 25 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters to life imprisonment for torching a police station in the country’s northern Sharqiya Governorate. [caption id=“attachment_1132997” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] The court sentenced one defendant to five years in prison while 16 others were acquitted in the same case of setting el-Qarin police station on fire last year, local media reported yesterday. The defendants, in cooperation with others, were accused of attacking and setting fire to the police station, torching a number of police vehicles, stealing weapons from the station and helping three prisoners to bust out of prison. The incident took place last year following the dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza which left hundreds killed. The Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters since ex-president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster last year. Thousands of Morsi supporters and Muslim Brotherhood members have been rounded up and put on trial since then. In March, 529 Muslim Brotherhood members were sentenced to death for killing a police officer last year. Morsi himself is currently in prison over charges of killing peaceful protesters, espionage, escaping from prison during the January 25 Revolution in 2011, insulting the judiciary. He was also charged of spying and handing documents of national security importance to Qatari intelligence through the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel. He has not been sentenced in any case so far. PTI