Egypt slaps Muslim scholar Qaradawi with life sentence

By Viola Fahmy

CAIRO (AA) - An Egyptian military court on Wednesday sentenced eight people to death, including four in absentia, for alleged involvement in acts of violence in 2015, according to a local judicial source.

Another 17 people were sentenced to life behind bars, including prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who, along with six others, was tried in absentia.

The alleged acts of violence include the murder of a police officer in Cairo, the judicial source told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media.

Al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian-born head of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), was reportedly charged with “incitement to murder”, “spreading false news” and “vandalizing public property”.

Twenty-six defendants in the same case were acquitted, including four senior members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

Wednesday’s raft of sentences is still subject to appeal. Defendants who were tried in absentia will receive retrials in the event they are arrested or turn themselves in to the authorities.

Egypt has been roiled by violence since mid-2013, when Mohamed Morsi -- the country’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader -- was ousted and imprisoned in a bloody military coup.