An Egyptian court has upheld the death sentence for ousted president Mohammed Morsi over a 2011 mass prison break.

Earlier today another court sentenced the former president to a life sentence in a case related to conspiring with foreign groups.

The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie was also sentenced to 25 years in jail in the same case. In total, 17 were given life sentences, including senior Brotherhood figures Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni.

The court last month sought the death penalty for Mursi after he and his fellow defendants, including Brotherhood leader Badie, were convicted of killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking police facilities and breaking out of jail during the uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.

The Islamist Mursi was Egypt's first democratically elected president and was overthrown by the army in 2013. He has said the court is not legitimate, describing legal proceedings against him as part of a coup by former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013.

Sisi, now president, says the Brotherhood poses a grave threat to national security. The group maintains it is committed to peaceful activism.