TIME and again, it`s proved true: once a country`s military tastes power, it`s loath to let it go; the situation in Egypt illustrates how much vengeance can be unleashed. On Monday, 683 more Muslim Brotherhood members were sentenced to death. The flippancy of the trial is evident from the way the death penalty is given and revoked. Last month, the same court gave deathsentences to529 Brotherhood supporters. On Monday, it changed the sentence for 492 of them to a life term.

Mohammad Badie, the Brotherhood`s supreme guide, is among those convicted for the death of several policemen in rioting last August. However, what the regime is trying to downplay is the death of over 1,000 people in the police crackdown on two Brotherhood camps in the wake of the army`s July coup. It is quite possible that some of the 683 people convicted on Monday may also have their sentences commuted. Yet the issue is not the fate of some individuals but of the Arab Spring.

Along with other elements of Egyptiansociety, the Brotherhood played a major role in the Tahrir uprising and later went on to win the parliamentary elections. This elected government, Egypt`s first, had every right to rule.

It is true president Mohammad Morsi made many mistakes and ef fected controversial amendments in the constitution, but the resistance to his Islamist agenda was bound to come sooner or later from Egyptian liberals within the democratic framework. Instead, the army chose to sabotage a democracy achieved after immense struggle against Hosni Mubarak`s military-led despotism. The military`s perfidy became obvious the day its chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, announced his decision to contest the election. It is, of course, a foregone conclusion that his election will be as bogus as the current bout of trials, but that will not serve to crush the Brotherhood. As examples in the region show, parties banned by the force of arms bounce back to power when there is a free vote.