Badie sentenced to death THE CAIRO Criminal Court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 13 leading members of the group to death on Monday. The verdict concludes the incitement-to-murder suit dubbed the “Rabaa control room” case. Setting 11 April as the date for a ruling concerning other defendants in the same case, the court referred its verdict on the present 14 defendants to the Grand Mufti of Al Azhar. Among the other defendants are Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan, former Kafr Al-Sheikh governor Saad Al-Hossainy and preacher Salah Sultan. The mufti's approval, though not binding, precedes the final verdict. Once the final verdict is issued, however, the defendants can still appeal. Badie and 13 others were found guilty of setting up a centre of operations, after the violent dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya protest camp in mid-August 2013, to direct the movements of Brotherhood supporters across the country. It was described as part of a plan to undermine the state's authority and spread chaos. They were also said to have plotted attacks on police stations, private property and churches. Badie is currently standing trial in several cases related to violent acts committed by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, following the police's dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in August 2013. He was sentenced to death in other cases, but the sentences were reduced to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, a Mansoura criminal court, also on Monday, gave the death sentence to eight members of the Muslim Brotherhood for attempted murder in two different cases. The defendants were also accused of possessing weapons, destroying public property and receiving military training in Gaza. The final verdicts on these cases will be issued on 18 May and 22 June. The Egyptian government designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation in November 2013. Hundreds of its members have been sentenced to death over the last year and a half. Commemorating Pope Shenouda EGYPT'S Coptic Christians mark the third anniversary of Pope Shenouda III's death on Tuesday. Visitors have arrived at St Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Al-Natroun, west of the Nile Delta, where the late pope is buried. Pope Tawadros II is expected to lead mass in memory of his predecessor later on Tuesday in the presence of top church officials. Shenouda, the 117th patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, died on Saturday, 17 March 2012, at the age of 88 following a long illness. Shenouda assumed his papal authority in 1971 during the presidency of Anwar Sadat, with whom he had a tense relationship. The late pope enjoyed friendlier relations with former president Hosni Mubarak.
