Posted on 12/20/21
| News Source: National News
A Cairo criminal court on Sunday upheld a life sentence for Mahmoud Ezzat, the former acting supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, court officials told The National on the condition of anonymity.
Ezzat was arrested in 2020 and convicted of conspiring with foreign powers to destabilise Egypt.
He was also convicted of handing over Egyptian defence secrets to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with the intent of strengthening the Muslim Brotherhood’s political power in the region at the expense of Egypt’s national security.
According to court documents cited by state media, Ezzat also conducted military training with Hamas militants in the Gaza strip.
Since joining the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s and studying under one of its most prominent leaders, Sayyid Qotb, Ezzat has been arrested several times for his involvement with the group.
His longest sentence was 10 years, which he served between 1965 and 1975.
A hardliner and one of the group's longest-serving members, Ezzat was again arrested in 2008 for participating in a protest against Israeli military strikes on Gaza.
However, he broke out of prison in 2011, during the wave of political unrest following the ousting of Hosni Mubarak as president.