Agencies | 01 Jumadal Ula 1439/19 January 2018

An Egyptian military court has sentenced Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi in abstentia to a life behind bars. The same court also sentenced eight others to death, including four in absentia, for alleged involvement in acts of violence in 2015.

Al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian-born head of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), was reportedly charged with “incitement to murder”, “spreading false news” and “vandalising public property”.

Twenty-six defendants in the same case were acquitted, including four senior members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

Wednesday’s round of sentences is still subject to appeal. Defendants who were tried in absentia will receive retrials in the event that they are arrested or turn themselves in to the authorities.

Egypt has been roiled by tyranny since mid-2013 when Mohamed Morsi – the country’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader – was overthrown and imprisoned in a bloody military coup.

In September 2017, Interpol removed al-Qaradawi, 91, from its online wanted list.

The international police organisation made the move after an assessment of the Egyptian charges against the scholar, who lives in exile in Qatar.