The appeals court issued the ruling on Saturday as Badie has already been slapped with two life sentences, which in Egypt is 25 years in prison. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
The court also upheld life sentences against Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman and another leader of the party, while five-year prison terms for 14 others were also confirmed, according to lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud. All the defendants had faced charges of conspiring to stir unrest during massive street protests that followed the military coup d'état in July 2013 which ousted former President Mohammed Morsi.
Morsi, himself from the Brotherhood, is also sentenced to life behind bars. He along with Badie and 13 other leaders of the party had been sentenced to death over terrorism charges. However, the court of cassation abolished the death sentences against Badie and scores of others in 2015 and ordered a retrial.
Egypt banned the Brotherhood in 2013 right after Morsi was deposed in the coup led by the then army chief and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The party is the most popular in Egypt and one of the oldest and most well-established in the Muslim world.
