A general view shows people looking at the aftermath following a bomb blast which struck worshippers gathering to celebrate Palm Sunday at the Mar Girgis Coptic Church in the Nile Delta City of Tanta, north of Cairo, on April 9, 2017. (AFP Photo/Stringer)
CAIRO – 24 April: Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a verdict Tuesday to add 161 defendants to the list of terrorist figures.
The verdict came after the defendants were charged in the case known in the media as the “Ansar Beit al-Maqdes case”.
The defendants are charged with several crimes, such as joining a terrorist group aiming to destruct state institutions, assaulting the rights and freedoms of citizens, damaging national unity and social peace, and assaulting army and police forces.
Ansar Beit El Maqdis has claimed responsibility for most of the major attacks against security forces and their installations, with the deadliest assaults taking place in Sinai.
The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist group in 2013 after committing several terrorist attacks to destabilize Egypt and incite interior chaos.
On April 22, the Court of Cassation also ruled to include 13 defendants on the terror list for their involvement in the case known as the “Qualitative Committees case”. The defendants include Abdallah Shehata, economic advisor of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
The Brotherhood’s qualitative committees were established contrary to the provisions of law, to prevent state institutions and public authorities from carrying out their duties and to violate the personal freedoms of citizens; this incident took place from the beginning of 2014 until March 28, 2016.
However, In January 2017, the Cairo Criminal Court placed 1,500 defendants, on the country’s terror list for being affiliated with the Brotherhood and supporting ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
On November 28, the Military Court sent 11 elements of Ansar Beit al-Maqdes to the Grand Mufti to issue the final judgment on their case, dubbed “Beit al-Maqdes 3”, on December 20.
According to the last amendment to the citizenship law issued by the Egyptian Parliament on September 21, “Egyptian citizenship will be withdrawn from the person who is found guilty of participating in a terrorist act, communicating with terrorists or gathering information for terrorists,” meaning that Egyptian citizenship will be withdrawn from the defendants.
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