ISTANBUL
The son of senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagi condemned the death penalty handed down to his father on charges of espionage.
“This verdict is just vengeful,” Ammar al-Beltagi told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.
On Tuesday, an Egyptian court sentenced to death 16 Brotherhood leaders, including al-Beltagi, on charges of conspiring with Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to carry out “terrorist acts” in Egypt.
The court also handed former President Mohamed Morsi a life sentence on similar charges.
The same court also sentenced more than 100 people, including Morsi, to death on charges of taking part in a mass jailbreak during Egypt’s 2011 revolution which toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Al-Beltagi was jailed for 25 years in the same case.
“It’s an honor for my father to be sentenced to death for conspiring with Hamas,” Ammar said. “My father has always been a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause.”
Egypt has been dogged by turmoil since then-defense minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrew Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, in a 2013 military coup.
Egyptian media blames Hamas, an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, for a series of deadly attacks on security forces carried out since Morsi's ouster.
Hamas, for its part, has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Fabricated charges
Ammar, who lives outside Egypt, said that all the charges leveled against his father have been fabricated by the military-backed authorities.
“I cannot count the number of cases fabricated by the coup authorities against my father,” he said. “All that I remember is that my father is now facing 170 years in prison.”
In addition to Tuesday’s rulings, al-Beltagi was handed two life sentences on violence charges.
“Egypt’s judiciary has now turned into a tool for killing and oppression,” Ammar said.
Since Morsi's overthrow, Egyptian authorities have launched a relentless crackdown on dissent that has largely targeted Morsi supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.
Family in disarray
Ammar said that his entire family is being hunted by the military-backed authorities in Egypt.
“While my younger brother Anas, 21, has been in detention for a year and a half, my mother is being sought for a 6-month jail term on claims of assaulting prison guards,” he said.
Ammar said that his younger brother had also been detained, but was recently released.
“My other young brother Hossam is also being harassed by security agencies,” he added.
Ammar himself was detained in mid-2013 after security forces violently cleared a pro-Morsi sit-in in eastern Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, in which at least 1,200 people were killed.
“I was later released. However, there are four complaints accusing me of fabricated charges,” he said.
Ammar’s younger sister, Asmaa, was killed in the violent dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in in mid-2013.
“Asmaa has become a symbol of freedom and fighting injustice and tyranny,” he said.
