Egypt court rules against Muslim Brotherhood extremists, Yusuf al-Qaradawi sentenced to life in prison
An Egyptian military court has sentenced eight people to death, including four in absentia, for alleged involvement in acts of violence in 2015.
Yusuf Al Qardawi at the Third Annual Doha Educational Conference in Doha in February 2006 photo Nmkuttiady via wikimedia commons
Another 17 people were sentenced to life behind bars, including prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who, along with six others, was tried in absentia on Wednesday.
Al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian-born head of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), was reportedly charged with “incitement to murder”, “spreading false news” and “vandalising public property”.
Twenty-six defendants in the same case were acquitted, including four senior members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood group.
Egypt has been roiled by violence since mid-2013 when Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader – was overthrown and imprisoned in a bloody military coup.
Following the 2013 change in power, the cleric was charged with still supporting the Brotherhood, as activists also condemned his “rabble-rousing” speeches.
“His inflammatory fatwas [edicts] would be considered under any constitution and law to be high treason, and could lead to the individual being stripped of their nationality,” said Ahmed Karima, Islamic Sharia professor at the time.
Qaradawi attacked the UAE in 2014 for jailing the “hardliners” and accusing it of “standing against Islamic government, punishing its leaders and putting them in jail.”
