(AFP PHOTO / TAREK EL-GABASS)
Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Saturday detained Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Al-Beltagy to six years in prison and a fine of 20,000 EGP for insulting the court.
According to the Freedom and Justice Party, Judge Shaaban El-Shamy, president of the court, and Al-Beltagy entered into an argument during the hearing of the Wadi El-Natroun prison break trial during the January revolution, involving former president Mohamed Morsi, Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 129 others, which was postponed to 10 January.
Al-Beltagy is not the first of the Brotherhood members on trial for contempt of court, but has received the harshest jail term for the charge. The same judge had ruled in November against 26 members in the same case, sentencing them to three years in prison and a fine of 10,000 EGP. Al-Beltagy was among those sentenced.
In August, the criminal court had also sentenced him and Safwat Hegazy to a year in prison for contempt, in the case of the Itihadiya protesters’ killings.
On Monday, a verdict sentencing Salafi leader Hazem Salah Abu Ismail to a year in jail was upheld by the court.
According to the law, contempt of court during a hearing is punishable by a maximum three-year sentence, but Al-Beltagy has been charged with the offence numerous times.
