Egypt upholds life sentences of 10 Muslim Brotherhood leaders

CAIRO — Egypt’s highest appeals court has upheld the sentencing of ten leaders of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s head, to life imprisonment, the state-owned MENA news agency reports.

In 2019, a Cairo criminal court found all ten, including the group’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, guilty of charges related to killing policemen and organizing mass jail breaks during Egypt’s 2011 uprising. That revolt culminated in the ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The defendants were found guilty of helping around 20,000 prisoners escape, and of undermining national security by conspiring with foreign terror groups — the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation acquittes eight middle-rank leaders of the nation’s oldest Islamist organization, who were sentenced earlier to 15 years in prison.

All of the sentences, which the court considered on appeal, are final.