AKIPRESS.COM - An Egyptian court sentenced former President Mohamed Mursi to life in prison on Tuesday for conspiring with foreign groups and sentenced three other Muslim Brotherhood leaders to death, reports Reuters.

The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie was also sentenced to life in the same case, which under Egyptian law, means serving 25 years in prison. In total, 17 were given life sentences, including senior Brotherhood figures Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni.

The court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leaders Khairat el-Shater, Mohamed el-Beltagy and Ahmed Abdelaty to death in the same case. Death sentences were also handed to 13 other defendants in absentia. The verdicts can be appealed.

Judge Shaaban el-Shami, first gave a history of the Muslim Brotherhood, before handing down his sentence.

He said the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, had said in his opinion that the death sentence was permissible for the defendants who had been referred to him.

The case relates to conspiring with foreign groups, including the Palestinian Hamas, which rules Gaza.