On Tuesday, the terrorism court in Badr, Egypt, delivered guilty verdicts as part of the case known as “Espionage for Turkey.” According to the court’s ruling, 37 defendants were handed life sentences, 26 individuals were given 15 years of hard labor, and five others were sentenced to ten years in prison. The convictions were based on charges of espionage, joining a terrorist group, rerouting international calls without a license, and holding onto communication devices without permission.
The trial, which was first brought in 2017, centered on high-ranking members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a major opposition group that had been pushing back against Egypt’s government at the time. Prosecutors argued that the organization had been working with Turkish intelligence to undermine the Egyptian state and seize power.
Under the court’s ruling, 29 of the convicts are required to pay the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority more than $130 million in compensation. In addition, 15 of the accused were handed five years of police supervision, and one defendant, Ali Ibrahim Ali, has been banned from living in the country’s border provinces for the same period.
In its final ruling, the court officially added five defendants, along with a number of legal entities, to the list of terrorist organizations. Those placed on the list include: the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s Parallel Parliament, the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, the Rabaa Egyptian Solidarity Association, and Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation.