Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Leader Mahmoud Ezzat Jailed For 25 Years

Trending on the social media is the case of Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo. He has just been sentenced to life imprisonment for storming the so-called #Egypt’s eastern borders.

The Egyptian and regional press have been covering the case. Ahramonline provides full detail.  It says Sunday’s verdict is considered a first degree ruling that can be appealed but a life sentence in Egypt carries 25 years in jail.

The Public Prosecution in Cairo accused Ezzat and other defendants of storming Egyptian prisons and collaborating with Palestinian Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s international leadership, and the Lebanese Hezbollah to create chaos and topple the Egyptian state as well as its institutions. He is also charged with receiving military training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to launch military attacks in Egypt in the trial that goes back to 2011, Al Ahram points out.

The report follows that Ezzat, who was arrested in 2020, was first handed a death sentence in absentia in June 2015 in the same case when 20 other defendants received life prison sentences and under under Egyptian law, in absentia convictions must be re-tried once the defendant is apprehended.

His trial carried international focus as seen from the tweets and postings from people in different parts of the world including:

Ezzat was also sentenced in April 2021 to life in prison over charges of murder and terrorism in a case known in the media as the “Guidance Bureau Case,” and was also sentenced in December to life in prison for collaborating with the Palestinian group Hamas and other foreign organisations and disclosing information pertaining to Egypt’s national security.

The Muslim Brotherhood was designated by the government as a terrorist organisation in Egypt in 2013.

Other elaborations on the story is carried by Egypt Today. It says Ezat, 78, remained a fugitive for seven years since 2013 until he was arrested in 2020 while hiding in an apartment in New Cairo. The arrest was carried out through a raid by security forces against the suspected flat upon a warrant by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.

The magazine points out Ezzat joined the Brotherhood in the 1960s, and later, married the daughter of former supreme guide Mahdi Akef. He spent time in prison during the rule of presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Hosni Mubarak, and has been a member of the group’s Guidance Bureau since 1981.