63 Brotherhood members jailed to 15 years in Egypt

An Egyptian military court on Wednesday sentenced in absentia 63 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood to 15 years in prison for attacking a security office in?<g data-gr-id="18">southern</g> part of the country in 2013.

<g data-gr-id="23">Twenty six</g> others were acquitted in the same incident, which took place in the upper Egyptian city of Qena in August 2013 following the dispersal of the two Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda. The defendants were also accused of attacking the Qena Archbishopric.

Since former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster, the Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. Morsi was Egypt’s first democratically-elected president before he was ousted by the army in a coup in <g data-gr-id="26">July,</g> 2013 following widespread protests against his divisive rule.

Last month, Morsi, Badie, and a 100 others had been sentenced to <g data-gr-id="20">death</g> in the two cases - espionage and the <g data-gr-id="15">jail break</g> - before both were referred to the Grand Mufti. 

In April, Morsi was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for inciting violence and ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators during clashes in 2012 while he was president.