A Cairo Court of Cassation has accepted an appeal by the head of Egypt s Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie and 36 others, decreasing their prison sentences in the so-called Beni Suef violence case.
The court reduced Badie s sentence from life imprisonment to 10 years.
The remaining defendants had their sentences reduced from 15 years to three years.
Sunday s court verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
The trial had a total of 93 defendants, 56 of whom were tried in absentia.
The verdicts of life imprisonment and 15 years were handed down in September 2017.
The case dates back to the deadly violence that took place in Beni Suef governorate in Upper Egypt in August 2013 after security forces dispersed two Cairo sit-ins protesting the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The defendants were charged with torching a police station and a nun s school in Beni Suef. They were also charged with inciting violence, vandalising public facilities, belonging to an outlawed group and the possession of weapons and ammunition.
The defendants in the case include leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and former parliamentarians, including Nihad El-Qasim Abdel-Wahhab, secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party in Beni Suef, Sayyed Heikal, Khalid Syed Naji, former members of the Shura Council, and Abdel-Rahman Shukri, a former member of the People s Assembly.
