Cairo: A court in Egypt has handed down 529 death sentences to supporters of former president Mohammed Morsi.
More than 1,200 supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi face charges in the country’s biggest trial since an August police crackdown, judicial sources have said.
Of those sentenced on Monday, 153 are in detention, while the rest are on the run, the sources said, adding that the verdict can be appealed.
Among the defendants in Saturday’s trial, to be held south of Cairo n Minya, will be the spiritual leader of Morsi’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, the sources said.
Some websites close to the Brotherhood reported that the trial would be held in six separate courts in Minya over six days, with some defendants expected to be tried in absentia.
The alleged attacks on individuals and public property are said to have taken place in southern Egypt in August, after security forces broke up two Cairo protest camps set up by Morsi supporters.
This is the largest trial in Egypt since the army ousted Morsi on July 3, 2013.
