Update: Egypt court confirms Morsi's 20-year prison sentence over violence

An Egyptian court confirmed on Saturday a 20-year prison sentence against deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, official MENA news agency reported.

Egypt's highest court, the Court of Cassation, rejected Morsi's appeal, rendering the prison sentence final, convicting the former president of inciting clashes between his supporters and opponents outside the presidential palace in late 2012 that left 10 people dead.

The same court on Saturday also cancelled the 25-year jail term against the Brotherhood's top chief Mohamed Badie and six others including former supplies minister Bassem Ouda, ordering their retrial before different courts over similar charges.

The defendants have been accused of urging confrontations between Morsi's loyalists and opponents that left at least 10 people killed and 20 others injured outside a mosque in Giza following Morsi's removal.

Morsi was removed by the military in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule.

Later security crackdown against his loyalists, mostly from the Brotherhood, left about 1,000 killed and thousands more arrested while the group was eventually blacklisted as a terrorist organization.

In May 2015, Morsi and 106 of his Brotherhood supporters received initial death sentences over a mass jail break following the 2011 uprising that ousted the country's long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Later in June 2016, a criminal court handed Morsi 25-year jail and announced confirmation of death sentences against six other Brotherhood loyalists over conspiring with militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups and leaking classified documents to Qatar against Egypt's national security.

Since Morsi's ouster, Egypt has been facing growing anti-government terrorist attacks that left hundreds of police and military men killed, with a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional group claiming responsibility for most of them.

On Saturday, a senior military general, who served in restive North Sinai province, was shot dead by three unknown assailants outside his home on the outskirts of the capital Cairo.

A week earlier, at least 20 soldiers were killed in blasts and armed attacks in North Sinai, and the security forces retaliated by killing around 100 militants and wounding 40 others.

Overall, the security forces killed over 1,000 militants and arrested a similar number of suspects in the chaotic peninsula as part of the country's "war against terrorism" declared by then military-chief and now-President Sisi. Endit