Date: Apr 16, 2018
Source: The Daily Star
Egypt court upholds life sentence against Brotherhood leader
Agence France Presse
CAIRO: An Egyptian appeals court Saturday upheld a life sentence against the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide Mohamed Badie for "planning violent attacks," judicial officials and his lawyer said.

The Court of Cassation also upheld life sentences against two other Brotherhood leaders including Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman, along with five-year prison terms for 14 others, defence lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud told AFP.

Badie's life sentence -- his third -- and the court's other rulings are final and cannot be appealed.

The defendants were accused of conspiring to stir unrest during protests that followed the July 2013 military-led ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the Brotherhood.

The retrial came after the Court of Cassation scrapped a 2015 ruling under which Badie and 13 others were condemned to death and 34 defendants given life terms -- 25 years in Egypt.

The court has cancelled scores of death sentences against Morsi supporters, including against the deposed president himself.

Egypt designated the Brotherhood a "terrorist" organisation in December 2013.