An Egyptian criminal court sentenced in a retrial on Wednesday Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and 10 other leading members of the group to life in prison on charges of spying for the Palestinian Hamas group.
Other leading Brotherhood members sentenced on Wednesday include Khairat El-Shater, Saad El-Katatany, Essam El-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagy.
The defendants were charged with sharing Egyptian national security secrets with foreign organisations as well as coordinating with violent militant groups inside and outside the country to launch terrorist attacks inside Egypt.
Two other defendants in the case, including Mohamed Refaa El-Tahtawy, were sentenced to seven years in prison.
The court also acquitted three other leading Brotherhood members, including Essam Haddad, of the espionage charges, although they were convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison on other charges.
Seven other defendants including El-Hassan Khairat El-Shater and Safwat Hegazy received acquittals.
In June 2015, a court sentenced three defendants including El-Shater and El-Beltagy to death for espionage, and others including former president Mohamed Morsi to life in prison.
Morsi died of a heart attack during a trial session in an espionage case in June 2019.
Badie and other defendants in the trial are already serving various sentences in prison, including life imprisonment, in other cases.
Life imprisonment is 25 years in prison according to Egyptian law.
The Muslim Brotherhood was designated as a terrorist organisation in December 2013.
