Egypt outlaws Hamas as 'terrorist organisation'

Hamas, the armed movement in de facto control of the Gaza Strip, has been declared a "terrorist organisation" by a court in Egypt, it emerged on Saturday.

Hamas has close links with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group outlawed by Cairo after Egyptian military leaders ousted Brotherhood leader President Mohamed Morsi in a 2013 coup.

The court also ruled against Brotherhood leaders, jailing one for life and sentencing others to death.

The Gaza-based movement called the decision "shocking and dangerous".

"It upends equations making the occupation a friendly entity, and the Palestinian people an enemy [of Egypt]," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

"The decision targets the Palestinian people and Palestinian resistance forces," he added, saying it was "a desperate attempt to export Egypt's internal crises."

[The ruling is] a desperate attempt to export Egypt's internal crises. - Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman

The move jeopardises future cooperation between Palestinian and Egyptian officials, who have previously acted as mediators with Israel.

Sinai

Egypt has been waging a military campaign against armed groups on the restive Sinai peninsula. Cairo officials blame Hamas, in neighbouring Gaza, for supporting the insurgency.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization whose involvement in terrorist attacks killing Egyptian soldiers and officers from the armed forces and interior ministry has been proven," prosecutors told Cairo's Court of Urgent Matters. 

Egypt outlawed Hamas' armed wing, the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, in January, after clearing a "buffer zone" along the border with Gaza, demolishing thousands of family homes in Rafah and displacing their inhabitants.

Change and Reform, the Hamas-affiliated bloc in the Palestinian legislature, said the decision was "an affront to history and to Egypt".

Badie behind bars

The court also sentenced Mohamed Badie, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood leader, to a life sentence in jail.

Other, lower-level, leaders of the group were sentenced to death.

It is the latest chapter in Cairo's ongoing crackdown on the Brotherhood and other Islamist opposition groups. Egypt has jailed thousands of people linked to the Brotherhood since the coup against Morsi.

Badie was among 14 who were sentenced to life imprisonment, alongside deputy leader Khairat el-Shater and leading figure Mohamed el-Beltagy.

Four more junior Brotherhood members were sentenced to death on Saturday, charged with inciting violence that led to the deaths of protesters demonstrating outside a Brotherhood office on June 30, 2013, days before Morsi's ousting.

Two of those sentenced to death and three sentenced to life were tried in absentia.

The death sentences are subject to appeal and many of the defendants are already serving lengthy sentences on other charges.

Badie has already been sentenced to multiple life terms, and was one of hundreds given the death sentence in a mass trial that drew international criticism of Egypt's judicial system.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief toppled Morsi, describes the Brotherhood as a major security threat.

The movement says it is committed to peaceful activism.