Egypt Watch

Egypt sentences 10 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death

The Cairo Criminal Court has referred the papers of 10 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the case known in the media as the Helwan Brigades Case, to the Grand Mufti to issue a legal opinion regarding their execution.

On June 19, the court is scheduled to pronounce its verdicts in the case, which includes 215 people accused of forming armed groups to carry out hostile operations against police personnel and facilities. The prosecution alleged that the defendants were involved in the murder of four police officers, the attempt to murder others, and the destruction of public property. The prosecution also accused them of shooting at a police car with the aim of spreading terror and chaos among the people.

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights Information has documented many violations against the detainees over a period of about seven years, during which they suffered pretrial detention without legal basis. The organisation said in a previous statement: “The Helwan Brigades Case is the name given by the pro-authority media in Egypt to a political case in order to delude citizens that there is an armed organisation that possesses a huge arsenal of weapons and consists of an organised structure that poses a threat to their security and safety.”

Most of the detainees in the case are residents of the city of Helwan and its suburbs. Their number in total is 215 people, including entire families, relatives, and friends, and most of them are young. They were subjected to prolonged pretrial detention as punishment for their participation in peaceful demonstrations against the current Egyptian regime.