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Egypt Sentences Muslim Brotherhood Leaders to 15 Years for Torturing Lawyer

Eight men, including two members of the Muslim Brotherhood and an Islamist preacher, were on trial for allegedly torturing and sexually assaulting a lawyer during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
Photo by Heba Khamis/AP

An Egyptian court sentenced eight men, including two members of the Muslim Brotherhood, to prison Saturday for "torturing, electrocuting and sexually assaulting" a lawyer during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

Brotherhood leaders Mohamed al-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy, along with an Al-Jazeera journalist and one other defendant were sentenced to 15 years, sources told  AFP.

Four others, among them ousted president Mohamed Morsi's former youth minister, Osama Yassin, were sentenced to three years in jail, the sources said.

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Morsi is a key figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, and served a tumultuous year as president before being deposed in a July 2013 military coup by current leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former head of Egypt's army.

Since Morsi's ousting, the government has cracked down on members of the Brotherhood, formerly Egypt's largest political faction, and their supporters, jailing thousands and handing down scores of lengthy prison sentences or the death penalty in mass trials.

The incident involving lawyer Osama Kamal took place at the height of protests against former President Hosni Mubarak on February 3, 2011, after Kamal arrived at the gates of Cairo's Tahrir Square, where Brotherhood supporters were staging a sit-in, local media reported.

After Kamal refused to show his identification, a group of men accused him of being a government official spying on the demonstration, and dragged him to a travel agency office nearby where they proceeded to torture, electrocute, and sexually assault him.

Egypt jails journalists, and America sends military aid. Read more here.

Beltagy and Hegazy are among other Brotherhood leaders who are currently on trial for a range of alleged crimes, including murdering opposition demonstrators who rallied against Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, during his term in government.

Morsi himself is on trial for a host of alleged crimes including murder, treason, and espionage.

Human rights organization estimate at least 1,400 Brotherhood supporters have been killed in clashes with government forces and 15,000 jailed since Morsi's ouster.

In June, el-Sisi's government also sentenced two Al Jazeera journalists, one who is an Australian national, to seven years and another reporter to ten years prison time on terror charges that included aiding the Brotherhood and false reporting. The trials have been widely decried as a politicized sham.

Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifields