Mass Death Sentences in Egypt

A judge at a mass trial in Egypt has recommended the death penalty for 683 people - including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie. However, the judge also commuted to life terms 492 death sentences out of 529 passed in March in a separate case. The defendants faced charges over an attack on a police station in Minya in 2013 in which a policeman was killed. Ahmed Maher, the group's leader, was sentenced to three years in prison in December for violating a law that bans all but police-sanctioned protests.