The Cairo Criminal Court referred the files of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 13 other convicts to the Grand Mufti, a prerequisite before enforcing death sentences, in the trial publicly known as the “Rabaa Operations Room”.
The court also decided Monday to adjourn the case to 11 April session to give the verdict for the remaining defendants, state media reported.
In the case, 51 people are charged with “forming an operations room to direct the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood to defy the government during the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in dispersal, and to spread chaos in the country”, according to a statement released by the Prosecutor General’s office.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, and 50 others have stood trial since April 2014 in case number 2210/2014. The case is headed by Judge Nagy Shehata, who is also presiding over four other high-profile cases, including the ‘Cabinet Clashes’ and the former Al Jazeera journalists’ trial.
Shehata has been widely criticised for handing our severe sentences with little supporting evidence.
