Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie (2nd R) and other defendants gesture during their trial in the capital Cairo on June 7, 2014. The court postponed to July 5 the verdict in the trial of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and 37 others for inciting violence that killed two people last summer. But it sentenced to death 10 defendants who are on the run, and a final ruling on their cases is expected the same day once they are reviewed. AFP
Reuters/Cairo
An Egyptian court sentenced 10 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death in absentia on Saturday, but postponed sentencing of the movement's leader and other senior members on trial in the same case, judicial sources said.
Those sentenced were convicted on charges including inciting violence and blocking a major road north of Cairo during protests after the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July.
All 10 were assumed to be in hiding amid a state crackdown on the group since Mursi's ouster. One of those sentenced was Abdul Rahman al-Barr, a member of the Brotherhood's Guidance Council, the movement's executive board.
Death sentence recommendations in Egypt are passed on to the country's Mufti, the highest religious authority. His opinion can be ignored by the court. The rulings can be appealed.
Judge Hassan Fareed said the verdict for the rest of the defendants would be announced at a hearing on July 5.
Those 38 defendants include the Islamist movement's General Guide Mohamed Badie and senior member Mohamed El-Beltagy, along with former ministers from Mursi's government.
Badie was among 683 people sentenced to death in April.
