Egypt Court Upholds Life Sentences for 10 Islamists

CAIRO - Egypt's highest appeals court on Sunday upheld the sentencing of 10 leaders of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including the group's head, to life imprisonment, the state-owned MENA news agency reported.

In 2019, a Cairo criminal court found all 10, 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 about 20,000 prisoners escape, and of undermining national security by conspiring with foreign militant groups — the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation acquitted eight middle-rank leaders of the nation's oldest Islamist organization, who were sentenced earlier to 15 years in prison. All sentences, which the court considered on appeal, are final.