Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie (REUTERS)
A Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leading figures to life in prison in the retrial of the commonly dubbed "the jailbreak and infiltrating eastern borders" case.
These included Mohamed Badie, Mohamed Saad El-Katatni and Essam El-Erian. Eight other Brotherhood members were handed 15-year prison sentences.
The court announced the abatement of criminal proceedings for ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who died in June after suffering a heart attack during a trial session in an espionage case.
The retrial comes after the Court of Cassation revoked in 2016 death sentences for Morsi and other defendants after a criminal court sentenced the defendant to death in 2015 on charges of damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder, attempted murder, looting prison weapons depots and releasing prisoners while escaping from the Wadi El-Natroun prison.
Prosecution charged the defendants with collaborating with Palestinian Hamas movement and Lebanese Hezbollah to infiltrate the Egypt-Gaza border through tunnels after the outbreak of the January revolution to storm jails and free imprisoned Brotherhood members.
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