Severe penalties for Muslim Brotherhood businessmen… What happened at the criminal court?

In a judicial ruling that once again highlights the issue of “covert financing,” the First Circuit of Egypt’s High State Security Criminal Court issued what were described as “deterrent” sentences against five prominent businessmen linked to the Muslim Brotherhood organization.

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The verdicts were not limited to prison terms alone but included life imprisonment and lengthy aggravated sentences. The rulings were as follows: life imprisonment for Wael Mohamed and Osama Hassan Arrabi, and aggravated imprisonment of fifteen years for Ashraf Saleh, Ahmed Labib, and Ismail Riyad, according to the newspaper Al-Youm Al-Sabea.

The case was not merely about “economic violations.” Investigations revealed a complex structure aimed at financing terrorism, providing financial cover for hostile operations against the army and the police, seeking to obstruct the enforcement of the law and prevent state institutions from carrying out their duties, and spreading false news and rumors to undermine social stability.

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One striking aspect of the ruling concerns what will happen after the defendants’ release from prison. The court decided to place the convicted individuals under police surveillance for a full five-year period, to officially include them on terrorist watch lists, and to designate their entity as a “terrorist organization.”

At the same time, legal circles are anticipating another major trial involving eighty-nine defendants in the case known as the “administrative structure cell,” with investigations extending to cover the organization’s activities over an entire decade, from 2013 to 2024.

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