Egypt's Appeals Court has upheld a draconian life sentence that was handed down to Mohammed Badie, the spiritual leader of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
The court ruled on Wednesday that Badie, along with 36 others, who served as ministers in the government led by the country's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who was supported by the Brotherhood between 2011 and 2013, deserved life behind bars for inciting violence and murder.
Badie has been viewed as a key element in the Muslim Brotherhood, a party which operated under numerous restrictions during the era of the country's former dictator, Hosni Mubarak. The senior Brotherhood figure played a major role in the popular uprising that led to the ouster of Mubarak in January 2011.
During the Wednesday session, the court also upheld the death sentences for 10 other individuals, who had been tried in absentia.
A criminal court in 2014 tried 47 defendants, who include former youth and supplies ministers, for charges of murder, attempted murder, resisting authorities, assaulting policemen, sabotage, and blocking a main road in the Nile Delta city of Qalyubia.
The general legal procedure against the Muslim Brotherhood began in July 2013, when Morsi was ousted in a military coup. The head of the Egyptian armed forces, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, came to power afterward. Sisi is believed to have orchestrated the coup as well as the ensuing crackdown on the Brotherhood.
Estimates provided by human rights campaigners show that 1,400 people have been killed and 22,000 have been arrested in relation to the crackdown on the members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Morsi himself has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for escaping prison in 2011. The Appeals Court endorsed the sentence last week, rejecting his appeal.
