683 sentenced to death in Egypt
MINYA, Egypt – The Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and more than 680 other people were sentenced to death Monday, stemming from last year’s post-coup violence in the latest mass trial that was denounced in the West and by human-rights groups as contrary to the rule of law.
In a separate ruling Monday, a court banned the April 6 youth group – one of several that engineered the 2011 uprising against longtime leader Hosni Mubarak that set off nearly three years of unrest. It ordered the confiscation of the group’s offices.
The sentences for the 683 defendants were announced by Judge Said Youssef at a court session in the southern city of Minya that lasted eight minutes.
The verdicts are not final and are expected to be overturned. Under the law, once the defendants who were tried in absentia turn themselves in – which is all but 63 of the accused – their trials will start over.
Ukraine mayor shot; U.S. to add sanctions
KIEV, Ukraine – The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city was shot in the back Monday and hundreds of men attacked a peaceful pro-Ukraine rally with batons, bricks and stun grenades, wounding dozens as tensions soared in Ukraine’s volatile east.
One presidential candidate said the mayor was deliberately targeted in an effort to destabilize the entire city of Kharkiv, a hub of 1.5 million people.
Russia’s defense chief meanwhile assured U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in a telephone call that Russia would not invade Ukraine, the Pentagon said.
Ratcheting up the pressure, President Barack Obama’s government levied new sanctions on seven Russian officials and 17 companies with links to President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. The U.S. also revoked licenses for some high-tech items that could be used by the Russian military.
Associated Press
