Egypt upholds life sentence against Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie

An Egyptian appeals court on Saturday upheld a life sentence against the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide Mohamed Badie for "planning violent attacks", judicial officials and his lawyer said.

The court also upheld life sentences against two other Brotherhood leaders including Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman, along with five-year prison terms for 14 others, defence lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud told AFP.

Badie's life sentence - his third - and the court's other rulings are final and cannot be appealed.

The defendants were accused of conspiring to stir unrest during protests that followed the July 2013 military-led ouster of Egypt's first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the Brotherhood.

The retrial came after the Court of Cassation scrapped a 2015 ruling under which Badie and 13 others were condemned to death and 34 defendants given life terms - 25 years in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities have arrested thousands of Brotherhood leaders and members, including Morsi, since his ouster by the army in 2013.

Hundreds have been sentenced to death, although many have appealed and won retrials.

Morsi had won the country's first free election in 2012, a year after a popular uprising ousted veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt designated the Brotherhood a "terrorist" organisation in December 2013.