A graffiti of Mayada Ashraf (left) engraved on Egypt's Syndicate of Journalists entrance in Cairo. on the Right is a graffiti of Husseini Abu Deif, another journalist who was killed in 2012 while covering an anti MB protest.
Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Sunday 17 defendants to life, nine others to 15 years, and acquitted 15 defendants for the 2014 murder of journalist Mayada Ashraf and others.
Ashraf was shot while covering clashes between the supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and police in Cairo's Ain Shams district, 28 March 2014.
The court sentenced four other defendants to seven years, and one juvenile to 10 years in prison in the same case.
A group of armed Muslim Brotherhood members, including the convicted, fired randomly at citizens protesting against their group in Cairo's Ain Shams district on 28 March 2014, instantly killing Mayada Ashraf, a 22-year-old journalist, Sherif Abdel-Raouf, a child who was present at the scene of the events, as well as Mary Sameh George, a woman who was passing by in her vehicle.
The prosecution in the case accused 48 people of joining and heading a terrorist organisation, committing murder, possessing illegal arms and ammunition, disrupting public peace, and vandalising public and private property.
Prosecution investigations in the case accused leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and the affiliated National Coalition to Support Legitimacy of forming an armed wing aimed at targeting journalists as well as Christian citizens following a public uprising that toppled Morsi in July 2013.
In the months following July 2013, Egypt saw a series of attacks on churches and government facilities after security forces dispersed Muslim Brotherhood supporter sit-ins in Cairo against Morsi's ouster.
Authorities have repeatedly accused the Muslim Brotherhood of being behind violent incidents and terrorist attacks since the ouster of Morsi.
In December 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood was officially designated a terrorist group in Egypt.
Many of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, including Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, have been jailed on various charges.
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