Egypt court orders retrial for Muslim Brotherhood supporters News
Egypt court orders retrial for Muslim Brotherhood supporters

[JURIST] An Egyptian court on Wednesday ordered for a retrial of 36 a Muslim Brotherhood [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] supporters. The 36 are among 183 supporters sentenced to death [JURIST report] in June in connection with violence following the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in 2013. Among those whose sentences were overturned is former Muslim Brother leader Mohamed Badie [Washington Institute backgrounder]. The court gave no reason [Reuters report] for ordering the retrial, and no date has been set for the proceedings.

Last week the country’s top appeals court upheld a death sentence [JURIST report] against an Islamist charged with murder as well as sentences for 57 other supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Also last week a court confirmed death sentences [JURIST report] for 183 supporters of the Brotherhood and ousted president Morsi. Last month the Cairo Appeals Court for Urgent Matters banned and declared [JURIST report] Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Qassam Brigades) to be a terrorist group. Qassam Brigades is the armed branch of Hamas, which is itself an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. In December an Egyptian court convicted [JURIST report] 40 supporters of former president Morsi for committing violence last year in the wake of Morsi’s ousting by the Egyptian military.