EGPYT sentenced two leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to life behind bars yesterday after a retrial on charges that they led violence during the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi in 2013.

Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater were given life sentences in 2015 after being charged with inciting violence and the murder of nine people protesting outside the group’s Cairo headquarters.

Four other leading members also received life sentences. Those convicted were accused of providing weapons, ammunition and explosive devices to militants.

They are expected to appeal to the Egyptian court of cassation.

Mr Badie had previously been sentenced to death for ordering the murder of 10 people in Cairo in 2013. He was elected the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, becoming its eighth leader since its formation in 1928.

Mr Morsi was ousted by the army in 2013 with a subsequent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood seeing hundreds of its supporters jailed or killed. It denies being a terrorist organisation, claiming its aims are peaceful.

The former president is serving a 20-year sentence for inciting deadly clashes between his supporters and opponents in late 2012 and a 25-year jail term for leaking classified documents to Qatar.