Egyptian court overrules death sentences of Brotherhood leader

Egypt's Court of Cassation overturned on Thursday the death sentences of the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 13 other senior members of the group, who will face a retrial for accusations of inciting chaos and violence, al-Araby al-Jadeed's Arabic service has reported.

Defendants in the trial have been accused of "forming an operations room to direct the Muslim Brotherhood to defy the government during the Rabaa sit-in dispersal, and to spread chaos in the country by breaking into police stations, government institutions, private property and churches."

	Over 800 protesters were killed during the Rabaa dispersal [Getty]

In April, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 13 convicts to death, including Badie, in the case referred to by Egyptian media as the "Rabaa Operations Room" trial.

The verdict was criticised by foreign governments and international human rights groups, who described it as "politicised", to which the Egyptian government responded by arguing the independence of the country's judicial system.

Badie,72, is the Brotherhood's highest figure and has been handed multiple death and prison sentences over the course of the past two years. He is being retried in several of those cases.

Since the July 2013 ousting of then-president Mohammad Morsi, many Muslim Brotherhood leaders and prominent figures have found themselves behind bars facing what human rights groups have described as show trials that are politically motivated and lack due process. Morsi himself has been sentenced to death.

Egypt listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation in December 2013 and insists it is behind the wave of militancy which has targeted security personnel since July 2013.

The Brotherhood continuously denies the accusations.

In an interview with the BBC ahead of a recent state visit to the UK, President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi who had led the coup against the Islamist president, said that the hundreds of people sentenced to death are "unlikely to be executed".