Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood leader handed life sentence

Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, has been handed a life sentence by an Egyptian court.

Badie, who is 72, was convicted alongside 35 others after they were found guilty of engaging in violent acts in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, during the 2013 ouster of Islamist ex-president Morsi.

Badie was arrested in August 2013 and tried under various charges. He has already received five life sentences previously and three death sentences in 2015.

Muslim Brotherhood was designated as a terrorist organisation in November 2013 by the Egyptian government.

Morsi had been elected president in June 2012 in the country’s first free elections after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak more than a year earlier.

Since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s ascension to power in 2013, a clampdown on the Brotherhood members was launched. However, the clampdown has led to more than 1,400 and 22,000 arrests, according to human rights bodies.