Mahdi Akef: Ex-Muslim Of Egyptian Brotherhood Leader Dies At 89.
Born in 1928, months after the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, Akef was one of the group's most prominent members.
Akef led the Brotherhood from 2004 to 2010 [File: Tara Todras-Whitehill/Reuters]
The former leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi Akef, has died in a Cairo hospital aged 89.
Akef, who headed the Brotherhood as the group's so-called supreme guide from 2004 to 2010, was diagnosed with cancer last year.
"My Father is in God's hands," his daughter, Alia, wrote on her Facebook page on Friday.
Akef was among hundreds of Brotherhood figures arrested in a heavy crackdown launched against the political organisation following the military's 2013 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the group and Egypt's first democratically-elected president.
He was initially convicted on violence-related charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict was overturned on appeal, and he was facing a retrial.
A failed assassination attempt on Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954 led to a wide-scale clampdown on the Brotherhood. Akef was imprisoned from 1954 till 1974.
Born in 1928, months after the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, Akef was one of the group's most prominent members.
Akef led the Brotherhood from 2004 to 2010 [File: Tara Todras-Whitehill/Reuters]
The former leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi Akef, has died in a Cairo hospital aged 89.
Akef, who headed the Brotherhood as the group's so-called supreme guide from 2004 to 2010, was diagnosed with cancer last year.
"My Father is in God's hands," his daughter, Alia, wrote on her Facebook page on Friday.
Akef was among hundreds of Brotherhood figures arrested in a heavy crackdown launched against the political organisation following the military's 2013 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the group and Egypt's first democratically-elected president.
He was initially convicted on violence-related charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict was overturned on appeal, and he was facing a retrial.
A failed assassination attempt on Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954 led to a wide-scale clampdown on the Brotherhood. Akef was imprisoned from 1954 till 1974.
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