By Hussein Qabani
CAIRO
An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 14 other group leaders with life in prison on violence charges, a judicial source has said.
"We will appeal the verdict, which was issued in the absence of defense lawyers," lawyer Osama al-Helau told Anadolu Agency.
The defendants were charged on several counts, including inciting violence during deadly clashes last summer in Giza following last year's military ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.
At least seven people were killed and more than 100 injured in the violence.
Other defendants in the case included leading Brotherhood members Mohamed al-Beltagi and Essam al-Erian, former supply minister and Brotherhood member Bassem Ouda, and Salafist preacher Safwat Hegazi.
Badie has been sentenced to life in prison twice on similar violence-related charges.
The verdicts were the latest in a series of trials in which scores of Morsi supporters have been charged with inciting violence – accusations the defendants emphatically deny.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, was ousted by the army last year – and later imprisoned on a raft of criminal charges – following massive demonstrations against his presidency.
The government has since designated the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, a terrorist organization.
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