The Cairo Criminal Court on Sunday gave Muslim Brotherhood [party website] leader Wagdy Ghoneim a death sentence in absentia. He was found guilty [First Post report] of forming an outlaw cell from 2003 to 2015, for obstructing the constitution and state institution, assaulting citizens, and harming national unity. Ghoneim currently lives in Turkey and has rejected [Washington Post report] the ruling stating that he has not been in Egypt since 2001. This case is one of many in Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood group. Thousands have been jailed and hundreds were killed following the 2013 government overthrow in Egypt.

Trials against former Muslim Brotherhood members has been ongoing for several years within Egypt. In November, Egypt’s Court of Cassation overturned [JURIST report] the life sentences of former president Mohamed Morsi and 16 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood for conspiring with militant groups. The same court overturned another of Morsi’s life sentences in the prior week related to a conspiracy for a prison break. The Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt had banned [JURIST report] the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing in August 2014. Egypt courts sentenced 683 Muslim Brotherhood members to death in April 2014, sentenced 183 Muslim Brotherhood supports to death in February 2015, and acquitted [JURIST reports] 68 activists in March 2015.