An Egyptian court has cleared the Muslim Brotherhood’s Farid Ismail of incitement charges 15 months after he died in solitary confinement in the notorious Al-Aqrab Prison, Huffington Post reported on Wednesday. This is the third time that a court has cleared him of the charges for which he was imprisoned since September 2, 2013. He died on 3 May last year.
Farid was remanded for “inciting terrorism and violence” as well as an alleged “raid” on some prisons in Egypt during the January 25 revolution. He was cleared of all the charges except the one related to the prison raid, which is still outstanding, even though he is dead.
Such incidents of clearing defendants after their deaths have occurred on several occasion since the 2013 military coup. All of the defendants involved belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mohamed al-Falahji, an official and former MP of the movement, was arrested in 2013 and accused of incitement and killing protesters. Two years later, he died in prison and was then cleared of the charges along with 10 others.
On 21 May this year, the Egyptian Court of Cessation cancelled a five-year detention term against the Muslim Brotherhood leader and Ein Shams University Professor Tariq Al-Ghandour and ordered his release. He had, though, actually died in prison in November 2014.