FILE - In this file photo dated Saturday, May 16, 2015, Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie waves from a defendants cage in a makeshift courtroom at the national police academy, in eastern Cairo, Egypt. An Egyptian court on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, sentenced 11 people to life in prison, including Mohammed Badie, after a retrial on charges related to mass prison breaks at the height of the 2011 popular uprising. The retrial was related to a case rooted in the escape of 20,000 inmates from Egyptian prisons in Jan. 2011, early in the 18-day uprising that toppled longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, who had testified in the case in December last year. The verdict cannot be appealed. (AP Photo/Ahmed Omar, FILE)
Republished September 11, 2019 - 6:30 AM
Original Publication Date September 11, 2019 - 4:56 AM
CAIRO - An Egyptian court Wednesday sentenced 11 Muslim Brotherhood leaders to life in prison on espionage charges for allegedly passing state secrets to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Among those sentenced in Cairo criminal court was the outlawed Brotherhood's chief, Mohammed Badie. It was the latest of several sentences against Badie, who received a life sentence last week on charges related to mass prison breaks during the 2011 uprising.
The court formally dropped charges against the late former president, Mohammed Morsi, who collapsed and died in June during an earlier court session on the case. His death brought criticism from local and international rights groups who accused the government of deliberately denying medical care to political prisoners.
Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure, became Egypt's first freely-elected president in 2012. The military overthrew Morsi in 2013 amid massive protests against his brief rule.
Authorities have since branded the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and arrested thousands of its members.
Wednesday's court session also saw three others sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on the same national security charges. Two others got seven-year sentences, and five others were acquitted.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019