Event Summary
- An Egyptian military court on Sunday 16th August 2015 sentenced 26 officers on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
- The officers were charged with spreading Muslim Brotherhood ideas within the army.
- They were sentenced to between 10 and 25 years in prison.
- The sentencing also included two senior officials of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Summary
The defendants in the alleged plot to overthrow the government include four retired colonels. Two Muslim brotherhood leaders were also sentenced to life imprisonment over the same charges.
According to the investigation, the convicts also faced charges of leaking military clandestine information, and belonging to the Brotherhood.
The alleged attempt to overthrow Egypt government comes amid controversial sentencing of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
The death sentence has received international criticism with the US, Egypt’s military ally, calling it politically motivated.
As it is, the defense for ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has filed an appeal against the death sentence and life-in-prison term for the former leader and all prisoners sentenced.
And earlier this month, OSINT sources indicated that Morsi, who has been in prison since he was ousted from power in 2013, told a court that he had stopped eating out of fears for his life.
Analysis
There is increasing vehemence in Egypt that surrounds the sentencing of Morsi and other culprits behind the prison break and violence against police.
This is the first time that military officers have been prosecuted for plotting a coup against the current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who seized power in a military coup against the country’s first elected leader Mohammed Morsi.
