A court in Egypt on Wednesday jailed for life 69 Islamists belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood for torching a church in 2013. The 69 torched the church in protests against the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsi.
The Coptic Church was set on fire and the same protestors attacked a police station in Kerdusa town in retaliation to the death of some of their Muslim brotherhood protesters. Two minors were among the sentenced but they received a 10 year jail term. In Egypt life imprisonment is equivalent to 25 years in jail.
A court official said that the defendants were found guilty of “setting the church on fire, attempting to murder civilians and possessing illegal weapons”.
Morsi was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison. This is one in a series of ‘harsh’ jail terms given to members of the Muslim brotherhood who were arrested in relations to the protest of 2011.
