Egypt court hands Badie life term

An Egyptian criminal court has sentenced the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie to life along with a number of the group’s leading members on a charge of violence that dates back to 2013.

Mohamed Beltagi and Essam Erian were also sentenced to life in yesterday’s verdict.

The defendants were previously sentenced to death in the same case in 2014 but the Court of Cassation repealed the ruling and ordered a retrial.

Life sentences in the Egyptian legal system last for 25 years.

Bassem Ouda, who was minister of supplies in 2012 and 2013, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the same case, while three other defendants received ten year terms.

Egypt court upholds prison term for Brotherhood leader

Prosecutors accuse the defendants of “inciting and taking part in violence” in the Cairo neighbourhood of Al-Bahr Al-Aazam in 2013.

Egypt’s oldest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood has been the subject of a harsh crackdown by the Egyptian regime since the military removed the country’s first freely elected civilian President Mohamed Morsi.

Authorities accuse the Brotherhood of condoning violence and have designated the group a “terrorist” organisation.

Since Morsi’s overthrow, thousands of Brotherhood members have been thrown behind bars and hundreds have been slapped with death sentences.