The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced on Monday Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie, as well as group leaders, such as Hossam Abu Bakr and Mahmoud Ghazlan, to life imprisonment in the “Rabaa operations room” case.

Another 15 defendants received sentences of 5 years imprisonment. Among those defendants are preacher Salah Soltan, two journalists from the Rassd news network, Abdullah Al-Fakharany and Samy Mostafa, and a presenter of the Islamist Amgad channel, Mosaad Al-Barbary.

Also among the sentenced defendants is the Egyptian-American head of Ahrar 25 channel, Mohammed Soltan, who was deported to the US in May 2015.

A further 21 defendants were acquitted from all charges, including Justice and Freedom Party official Mourad Ali, and spokesperson of the brotherhood Gehad Al-Hadad.

The prosecution accused the defendants of setting an “operations room” for the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in and giving orders to the protesters, which “spread nationwide chaos.”

In the wake of the 30 June uprisings in 2013 and the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, Brotherhood supporters launched a sit-in Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda squares.

Monday’s verdict was a result of a retrial, after the Cassation Court accepted the appeals of the defendants. The Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Judge Nagy Shehata, issued a verdict on defendants of the case on 11 April, 2014.

The case included 51 defendants, 37 of whom were previously handed life sentences, including 14 journalists and media workers.

The Rabaa operations room is one of several mass trials that were conducted after the ouster of Morsi. It received widespread international criticism from human rights groups, media organisations, and foreign governments due to the nature of the trials and their inclusion of journalists and foreign nationals.