• 09:17
  • Monday ,20 April 2015
العربية

In a first, Brotherhood leader Badie attends court in red execution garb

By-Ahram

Copts and Poliltical Islam

00:04

Monday ,20 April 2015

In a first, Brotherhood leader Badie attends court in red execution garb

The spiritual leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, appeared in court on Sunday wearing for the first time the red prison uniform typically worn by defendants who are going to be executed.The spiritual leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, appeared in court on Sunday wearing for the first time the red prison uniform typically worn by defendants who are going to be executed.

This comes more than a week after a Cairo court confirmed death sentences against Badie and 13 others over violence-related charges.
 
On Sunday, Badie, 71, appeared in court for a hearing in a separate trial over plotting unrest following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, also of the Brotherhood. 
 
He shouted from inside a glass-encased cage in protest at wearing the notorious red attire.
 
The top leader of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, Badie was arrested in August 2013. He has since been entangled in court cases that have seen him sentenced to multiple life terms.  Last year, Badie was among 183 sentenced to death in a mass trial that sparked western denunciation.  He is now facing a retrial in that case.
 
This month's death sentences against Badie and his co-defendants are subject to appeal before the Court of Cassation, the country's highest judicial authority, which has overturned dozens of previous death sentences against Islamists.
 
The harsh rulings are part of a sweeping crackdown on Islamists following Morsi's overthrow which has seen hundreds killed and thousand thrown in jail.
 
The government has banned the 86-year-old Brotherhood, designating it a terrorist organisation, but the group has said it is committed to peaceful activism.