Egypt sentenced to death 75 people, including prominent Islamist leaders, on Saturday over a 2013 pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-in which ended with the killing of hundreds of protesters by security forces.
Others being tried in the case, including Brotherhood spiritual leader Mohamed Badie, were handed life sentences, judicial sources said.
Those being sentenced are accused of security-related offences including incitement to violence, murder and organising illegal protests.
Rights groups have criticised the mass trial of more than 700 people in what has become known as the Rabaa case, after Rabaa Adawiya square where the sit-in took place in Cairo.
Those sentenced to death by hanging include senior Brotherhood leaders Essam al-Erian and Mohamed Beltagi and prominent Islamist preacher Safwat Higazi, the sources said.
In total 47 were handed life sentences while another 612 were also given long prison sentences.
Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as “Shawkan” was told he would spend five years behind bars. He has already been imprisoned for this period and his detention has provoked particular outcry from human rights groups who say he was arrested for doing his job.
The dispersal of the sit-in in August 2013 came weeks after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, then military chief, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi after protests against Brotherhood rule.
Amnesty International says more than 800 protesters were killed. The government has said many protesters were armed and that 43 police were killed.
Since Sisi took power in 2014, authorities have justified a crackdown on dissent and freedoms as being directed at terrorists and saboteurs trying to undermine the state.
Death sentences have been handed down to hundreds of his political opponents on charges such as belonging to an illegal organisation or planning to carry out an attack.
Speaking after the defendants were sentenced, Amnesty International’s North Africa Campaigns Director Najia Bounaim said “These sentences were handed down in a disgraceful mass trial of more than 700 people, and we condemn today’s verdict in the strongest terms.
“The death penalty should never be an option under any circumstances.
“The fact that not a single police officer has been brought to account for the killing of at least 900 people in the Rabaa and Nahda protests shows what a mockery of justice this trial was.
“The Egyptian authorities should be ashamed. We demand a retrial in an impartial court and in full respect of the right to a fair trial for all defendants, without recourse to the death penalty.
“Shawkan has already spent more than five years in prison simply for doing his job as a photojournalist and documenting the police brutality that took place that day. He has already spent more than five years in prison.
“The Egyptian authorities’ disgraceful attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression must stop, and they must immediately and unconditionally release Shawkan. He is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for doing his journalistic work.”
First Published in Mirror (UK)