Egypt issues new life sentence against Muslim Brotherhood leader

An Egyptian court sentences the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide Mohamed Badie to life in prison for “planning violent attacks” in a retrial, says judicial officials and a lawyer.

Badie is part of a group of 37 people accused of conspiring to stir unrest during protests that followed the July 2013 military-led ouster of Egypt’s former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the Brotherhood.

The court condemns Badie to a life term along with Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman, and Hossam Abubakr, a member of its guidance bureau, say the officials and defense lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud.

The retrial comes after Egypt’s court of cassation scrapped a 2015 ruling under which Badie and 13 others were condemned to death, and 34 defendants given life terms.

— AFP