An Egyptian court on Saturday confirmed the death sentences of 183 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, a judicial source told dpa .
In the case that began in April, presiding Judge Saeed Youssef had issued preliminary >death sentences for all 683 accused of storming a police station in the town of al-Idwa, in southern Minya province, and murdering a police officer.
The attack came as Islamists reacted with fury to the killings of hundreds of Morsy supporters in the police break-up of two Cairo protest camps.
On Saturday, Mr. Youssef confirmed the death sentences of 183.
Four received life sentences and 496 people were acquitted, the source said.
There were, however, conflicting reports on the ruling. State-run Nile News television reported that 100 people were sentenced to death, and that Badie was handed a life term.
Regional Al Arabiya broadcaster quoted a lawyer as saying that 197 were sentenced to death.
Saturday’s ruling can be appealed. Most of the defendants were tried in absentia.
Badie is being held in a Cairo prison and faces several trials.
On Thursday, a court handed down a preliminary death sentence for Badie, and 13 Muslim Brotherhood members in another case. The sentences will now be sent to Egypt’s chief Islamic legal authority, the grand mufti, for either approval or rejection.
The sentences come amid an ongoing crackdown on Mr. Morsy’s Muslim Brotherhood, which refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the military-backed government that replaced him.
