The Giza Criminal Court sentenced Saturday leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohamed El-Beltagy, Islamist preacher Safwat Hegazy, AlJazeera channel host Ahmed Mansour, and brotherhood member Hazem Farouk to 15 years in prison for torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square during the January 25 Revolution. Former counselor Mahmoud al-Khodeiry, former Youth Minister Osama Yassin, leading brotherhood members Amr Zaki and Mohsen Rady were also sentenced to three years. In 2011, Osama Kamal, a lawyer, was stopped at a Tahrir Square’s gate by a person claiming to belong to the Square’s protection committees. Upon failing to show his identity card, the person summoned others who arrested Kamal saying he was a national security officer. Kamal was beaten to unconsiousness and held captive for three days in a tourism company in one of the buildings overlooking Tahrir, where he was repeatedly tortured. He reported the February 3 incident to the public prosecution, which referred the defendants to trial in November 2013. El-Beltagy and Hegazy previously received a 10 year sentence in maximum security prison for torturing two policemen and another 10 year sentence for managing an illegal group on September 9. They were charged with managing a…
