Egypt has handed down life sentences to eight leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Islamist group's head, Mohammed Badie, on charges of inciting deadly violence.
The Giza Criminal Court reduced its earlier death sentences against the men on Saturday after it consulted the country's chief Islamic legal authority, the grand mufti.
At the same time, the court confirmed death sentences for six other defendants tried in absentia in the same case, which is related to deadly protests that erupted last year after the army's overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
The grand mufti, a spiritual leader, issues non-binding opinions on whether executions would be justified under Islamic law, an obligatory step in Egyptian criminal procedures.
According to judicial sources, the mufti objected to the death sentences on the grounds that the only direct evidence against the men was from the unsupported testimony of a secret police officer.
The 14 defendants were convicted in June. They are among hundreds of suspected Brotherhood supporters who have been brought before Egyptian courts since Morsi's ouster in July 2013.
In December, Egyptian authorities designated the Islamist group as a terrorist organisation.
Badie has already been sentenced to death along with 182 other defendants in a separate case related to a riot in a southern town in which a police officer was killed.
