CAIRO, Aug 22 (Aswat Masriya) - Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie was sentenced to life imprisonment on Saturday by a Port Said court, alongside 18 others.

Those sentenced to life in prison include Brotherhood figure Mohamed El-Beltagy and Islamist preacher Safwat Hegazy. 

Badie was put on trial alongside 190 others before a Port Said court. They are accused of encouraging violence and murder in the port city in August 2013.

The court acquitted 68 defendants and sentenced 28 to 10 years of maximum security prison. The remaining 76, who were being tried in absentia, were sentenced to life in prison.

According to investigation, Badie and other Brotherhood figures encouraged group members to storm into a police station, "murder the policemen inside," steal the weapons and smuggle the detainees out. This left five dead and injured several policemen. 

Official charges leveled against the defendants featured in this trial include "murder" and attempted murder".

Badie, who is the Brotherhood's highest figure, has been handed two death sentences.

He and several other Brotherhood figures were sentenced to death in June for a prison escape case. Around 100 were sentenced to death in the prison escape case, only six of whom were in the session, while the vast majority were sentenced in absentia. 

In April, Badie and 13 others were handed a death sentence, which can still be appealed. They were accused of managing and using an "operations room" to "resist the state and spread chaos."

Since the July 2013 ouster of then-president Mohamed Mursi, Muslim Brotherhood leaders and prominent figures have often found themselves behind bars and facing courts.

His removal came at the hands of the military after mass protests against his rule but Mursi and his support base consider the power change a coup.

In June, Mursi himself was sentenced to death after being accused of escaping the Wadi al-Natroun prison during the January 2011 uprising.