Global media is reporting that an Egyptian court has sentenced Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood preacher Wagdy Ghoneim to death in absentia in connection with terrorist charges. According to a report by the Indian news portal FirstPost:
April, 30 2017 Cairo: Muslim Brotherhood leader and radical Islamic preacher Wagdy Ghoneim was on Sunday sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court for setting up a terror group after the 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
Ghoneim, who now lives in Turkey, and two others were sentenced to death by the Cairo criminal court after they were found guilty of establishing an illegal cell from 2003 to 2015 that obstructed the Constitution and state institutions, assaulted citizens and incited violence against security forces.
Five others were sentenced to life in prison, two of them in absentia.
Ghoneim, 66, an outspoken supporter of Morsi, dismissed the ruling, saying he had not been in Egypt since 2001.
Ghoneim, known for making controversial remarks about Copts in Egypt, campaigned against the military-led ouster of Morsi in 2013.
The radical preacher left the country after Morsi’s ouster when the authorities launched a crackdown against supporters of the Islamist president.
Earlier this month, the Cairo Criminal Court referred the case’s document to the Grand Mufti, who is according to the Egyptian law must review all death sentences. However, the Grand Mufti’s decision is not binding.
The final verdict of the death sentence was issued on Sunday.
Ghoneim faced trial in other cases alongside Morsi, including incidents of violence outside the Presidential Palace on December 5, 2012.
Ghoneim is known for making controversial remarks about Copts on TV channels. In March this year, Ghoneim was sentenced by a Cairo misdemeanours court to five years in prison on charges of incitement against Copts.
Wagdy Ghoneim is an Egyptian cleric known for his anti-Semitic speeches. In January 2005, Mr. Ghoneim agreed to be voluntarily deported from the U.S. based upon Department of Homeland Security concerns that his past speeches and participation in fund-raising activities could be supportive of terrorist organizations. Following deportations from Bahrain and South Africa, he appears to have first settled in Qatar where MEMRI reported on remarks by Mr. Ghoneim which aired on Al-Jazeera TV and which praised violent Jihad and criticized the U.S. and Europe as “Godless” nations. He later was reported to be living in Turkey.
For more on Wagdy Ghoneim, go here.