The conflict between the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group and the current Egyptian regime in 2015 has passed through several stages of political tide with the State trying to lessen the terrorist group's military and popular escalation. This report delves into the controversial Sate-Brotherhood equation, seeking to reach a satisfactory answer to its main inquiry whether the current regime managed to weaken the Islamist group's clout. (The report maker has strenuously sought to receive accurate statistics from Egyptian security and judicial circles with no information released yet. Hence, the report is mainly based on general information gathered through media outlets, avoiding mentioning numbers for credibility) Street protests Particularly on Fridays, loyalists of the Brotherhood launched unlicensed demonstrations calling for the reinstatement of ousted president Mohammed Morsi. These protests have been mainly spotted in densely populated residential neighborhoods, including Kerdassa, Mataryea, Nahya and Alf Maskan neighborhoods. Police have peacefully dispersed the protests, according to spokesperson for Interior Ministry, Major Gen. Abu Bakr Abdel Karim. The spokesperson has not stated the accurate number of protests, but he insisted the number is being decreasing and controllable. Jailed elements According to a number of media reports, basically foreign, hundreds of the group's young activists have been arrested for protesting against the current regime. Human rights groups have echoed the same allegations, claiming the number of jailed activists may be estimated in thousands. Egypt's police insist the allegations are untrue with no accurate number of those jailed available yet. All those behind bars have been indulged into terror and violence-related crimes, police said. Terrorist acts In 2015, Egyptian security forces announced they defused a series of terrorist attempts to plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near vital military and civil institutions. These attempts, mainly attributed to the brotherhood linked Province of Sinai, focused on facilities and personnel in the volatile Sinai Peninsula. In an interview Al-Bawaba Egypt has conducted with spokesperson of Interior Ministry, he revealed no accurate statistics of the terror acts committed or defused by security forces have been available, but he said the nature and perils of these acts have been on the decrease. "In the past, they used to detonate police directorates; now, their attacks are confined to IEDs, mostly away from sensitive facilities," he said. Terror cells Media reports have said over 2015 that a large number of terrorist cells linked to the group designated as terrorist by authorities have been arrested. Mostly, the police said large numbers of weapons were in possession of the arrestees during the arrest. Police also announced large sums of cash were found with them, adding the cells were basically fundraised through the Brotherhood elements based abroad, particularly in Turkey. The members of those cells have been received training in Turkey, according to official reports. Terror webpages Egypt's electronic police have suspended a number of webpages that incite violence against the military and police personnel as well as publishing false news regarding the forces. The pages, mainly on social media plus other news websites, are said to have been financed by the international organization abroad. Jailed senior figures In reaction to the group's path of violence, nearly all the Brotherhood leading figures are currently behind bars for accusations of spurring violence and terror plus belonging to an organization officially banned by authorities. These senior heavyweights include ousted president Mohamed Morsi and supreme guide Mohamed Badei among others. Figures of the group's middle rank have been also arrested over 2015. Death sentences In June 2015, a series of death sentences have been issued against ousted president Morsi and supreme guide Badei plus other members of Morsi's presidential team. Media outlets related to the outlawed group said more than 100 elements have received death sentences. These sentences were based on investigations proving the ousted president had been in direct contact with Qatari intelligence to pass classified military documents as well as the prison break case during the 2011 uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak. Other members were delivered death sentences for being involved in terror attacks against the military and police forces nationwide. Death sentences executed On May, 17, 2015, a death sentence was executed against six elements related to the Islamist group, involved, according to judicial investigations, in attacking military and police personnel in the case publicly known as "Arab Sharkas". Egyptian authorities said the executed elements used to launch attacks on behalf of the Islamic Sate offshoot Province of Sinai. Judges assassinated Hours after the Arab Sharkas sentence was carried out, three Egyptian judges in Al-Arish, North Sinai were shot killed by militants of Islamic State. Other judges have been shot either killed or injured in cities of the restive peninsula. On June, 29, 2015, Egypt's attorney general was assassinated in a car bomb in Cairo, an attack claimed by province of Sinai militants in revenge for sentences against the Brotherhood. Death sentences overturned On Dec., 3, 2015, the court of cassation overturned death sentences against Badie and other leading figures, including elements delivered life imprisonment sentences, recommending their retrials. The court said the ruling was final and unchallengeable. Sisi's statements In an interview with the BBC in November 2015, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said most the rulings issued against the Brotherhood senior figures have been in absentia, excluding the possibility of getting such verdicts implemented. Sisi's statements were totally similar to those given during a press conference with Germany's Angela Merkel in Berlin earlier in 2015. Such statements were controversial for local and international observers. Some activists in Egypt argued the sentences would not be implemented allegedly for international mediators, adding the Brotherhood might be re-included in the Egyptian political scene. Others say the death sentences are being used by Sisi as a maneuver card for political gains. Nearly five decades ago During the 1950s and 1960s, Egypt's Nasserite regime was much more decisive in executing death sentences against the Brotherhood leaders including the group's god father Sayyed Qutb and others. The then sentences swept the terrorist organization out of the country's political scene for decades till late president Anwar Sadat allowed them back. Intellectuals close to Sisi's regime have repeatedly slammed those sentences being unexecuted, arguing this lateness would surely endanger the country's political future. Brotherhood clout dwindling Based on the information available, we conclude the Egyptian State has managed, to a large extent, to lessen the Brotherhood's political and social clout inside Egypt with protest dwindling, terror attacks besieged and large numbers of the group's elements behind bars. The state also succeeded over 2015 in completing the road-map declared following ousting Morsi on July, 3, 2013 with the parliamentary elections hold last November. Internationally, despite being heavily slammed for human rights abuses, the Egyptian regime was capable of normalizing relations with western countries that were hostile to the ouster of the Brotherhood. President Sisi, eventually, headed for eastern powers, usually off the beaten track for Egypt's policy makers, including China and Russia. Recently, the Islamist group, amid these circumstances, has suffered great internal divisions as well as foreign pressures with the British PM David Cameroon designating the group among terrorist organizations.
