Egypt court jails 73 Muslim Brotherhood members

Cairo: An Egyptian court Thursday sentenced 73 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to 15 years in prison for assaulting a police station a year ago.

They were convicted of violence, sabotage, attempted murder, robbery of security headquarters equipment, and weapons possessions in the Delta province of Kafr-el-Sheikh following the ouster of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi a year ago, Xinhua reported citing state-run Nile TV.

Nine other Morsi supporters received eight-year sentences on the same charges.

In a separate case, a criminal court handed down the life sentence to a prominent Brotherhood figure, Abdullah Barakat, dean of the Islamic Faculty College, and fined him 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,796) over similar charges, in addition to blocking a main road north of Cairo. Four other Islamists were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Since the military-led removal of Morsi in July 2013, a massive security crackdown on Morsi supporters has left more than 1,000 killed and thousands of others arrested.

All top leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have received life sentences or various jail terms, which could be appealed, for inciting violence and murder, some in absentia.

Morsi himself faces charges such as his role in a 2011 jailbreak, espionage, ordering the killing of protesters, insulting the judiciary and leaking classified documents to Qatar.