Cairo, Apr 9 (IANS): An Egyptian court has sentenced Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting supreme guide of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, to life imprisonment, which is 25 years in the country.

Ezzat, head of the Brotherhood's International Organization, was charged with inciting the killing of innocent, possession of weapons, and terrorising citizens, reports Xinhua news agency.

The case dates back to 2013 when members of the Brotherhood killed nine people and wounded 91 others following the army-led ouster of the late Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected President, in response to mass protests against his rule.

The violence took place outside the Brotherhood headquarters in Moqqatam district in eastern Cairo.

Ezzat, arrested in August 2020, was named the group's acting supreme guide in August 2013, replacing Mohamed Badie who currently serves life sentences over violence charges.

Promoted as a member of the group's guidance bureau in 1981, Ezzat has been sentenced in absentia for a life term on accusations of espionage with the Palestinian Hamas movement.