Cairo: An Egyptian court on Saturday commuted death sentences to life terms for Mohammad Badie, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, and seven other members of the outlawed Islamist group.
The court upheld the death sentences to six other fugitive defendants in the same case.
The 14 were convicted of inciting clashes in which 10 persons were killed in Giza, south of Cairo, last year following the military’s toppling of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
In June, the Giza Criminal Court initially sentenced all defendants to death and sent the case for the country’s top Islamic legal official, the grand mufti, for an advisory opinion - a routine procedure in Egypt’s judicial system.
But the mufti refused to approve the rulings, with local media quoting his report as saying there was no hard evidence against the defendants.
On August 7 when the final verdict was due, the court in an unprecedented move announced that the case documents would be sent again to the top clergyman, adjourning the ruling to August 30.
The Brotherhood condemned on its website Saturday’s rulings calling them “unfair”.
The defendants include ex-minister of supply Bassem Ouda as well as Mohammad Al Beltaji, Essam Al Erian and Safwat Hejazi, who are senior officials in the Brotherhood.
The fugitives, meanwhile, include leading Islamist Assem Abdul Majid, believed to be staying in Qatar since Mursi’s ouster.
In June, Badie, 71, was given a death sentence by another court that convicted him of inciting deadly unrest in the southern city of Minya.
Badie, a veterinary professor, is being tried in several other cases on multiple criminal charges. Thousands of the Brotherhood’s senior officials and followers have been rounded up since Mursi’s removal and put on trial.
The Islamist group, which the Egyptian government declared a terrorist organisation last December, has repeatedly dismissed the trials as a sham.