In this farcical trumped-up case known in the media as the Istiqama Mosque Incident, the Giza Criminal Court has ignored all normal procedures, broken the law and sentenced to death 14 national figures, symbols of the January 25 (2011) Revolution, and forwarded their papers to the Grand Mufti – usually to rubber-stamp the death sentences.

Those sentenced to death Thursday are: Dr. Mohamed Badie, Muslim Brotherhood Chairman; Dr. Mohamed Beltagy, Dr. Essam El-Erian, two leading figures of the Freedom and Justice Party; and Assem Abdel-Magid, member of the Al-Gama‘a Al-Islamiya‘s Shura Council; Dr. Bassem Ouda, Supply Minister in the legitimate government of Dr. Hisham Qandil; Dr. Safwat Hegazy, Islamic preacher; Ezzat Gouda, Anwar Shaltout, Husseini Mahrous, Essam Rashwan, Mohamed Hassan, Abdel-Razek Mahmoud, Azab Yakout and Mohamed Radwan.