Seventy-five people were sentenced to death and another 47 to life in prison Saturday by an Egyptian court for their actions in a 2013 protest in Cairo.
Hundreds more will spend anywhere from five to 15 years in prison under the sentences handed down in the mass trial of more than 700 people, primarily leaders and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, involved in the protests supporting former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
More than 800 people, mostly demonstrators, were reportedly killed when security forces broke up the sit-in in an action Human Rights Watch called “the largest mass killings in Egypt’s modern history.”
The protests were broken up after Morsi was ousted by the military for Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who is the current president. The Muslim Brotherhood has since been banned as a terrorist organization.
The death penalty sentences were for a variety of charges, including murder, incitement to break the law, membership of a banned group, or being part of an illegal gathering, according to reports.
The Independent reported that Najia Bounaim, the deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International, called the sentences “disgraceful” and the trial “a mockery of justice.”
