Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized a recent decision by an Egyptian court to confirm the death sentences previously handed down to 14 Muslim Brotherhood members on charges of orchestrating violence in Egypt.

“It appears that the case against Muslim Brotherhood members leading to death sentences of 14 men is politically motivated,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the director of the Middle East and North Africa division of the HRW, said on Sunday.

The Cairo Criminal Court ratified on Saturday the sentences given to Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 13 other defendants for their role in popular protests following the military ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The Egyptian court also confirmed the life terms given to 37 other Muslim Brotherhood members.

“The fact that those who publicized the mass killings of 2013 could go to prison for life while those who did the killings receive official accolades perfectly symbolizes the abject failure of transitional justice in Egypt,” Whitson said.

The military-backed administration of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by then army chief Sisi.

The Egyptian government’s suppression of Morsi’s supporters has led to the death of more than 1,400 people and the arrest of 22,000 others, including some 200 people who have been sentenced to death in mass trials.

This is while Egypt’s former dictator, Hosni Mubarak, and some of his senior officials have been acquitted of all charges leveled against them over the killing of protesters in the 2011 revolution.