Asyut criminal court sentenced the leader of Gamaa Islamiya, Assem Abdel Maged, in absentia to 15 years in prison on Thursday on charges of killing protestors in Asyut on June 30, 2013, according to Al Bawaba News. The trial included 35 Muslim Brotherhood and Gamaa Islamiya (Islamic Group) members. 19 of the defendants were sentenced in absentia, five were sentenced to 3 years in prison, and 29 others were acquitted. The defendants were charged with protesting illegally, resisting police, possessing weapons, inciting violence and killing protesters over incidents that killed three and injured 50 others in front of the cabinet building of Asyut governorate. The prosecution asserted that the defendants met on June 5, 2013 in Asyut under the motto that "legitimacy is a red line" in response to plans for protests against Morsi's regime on June 30. Maged was charged with inciting the other defendants to shoot protesters and security forces randomly on the day of the protests. Maged, who was listed on Interpol's red notice list earlier this month, left Egypt for Doha after Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013. He had been released in 2006 after 25 years in prison over charges of having a hand in the assassination of former President Anwar Al-Sadat in 1981.
