CAIRO, Mar 16 (Aswat Masriya) - The Cairo Criminal Court referred on Monday Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 13 others to the Grand Mufti to issue an opinion on handing them death sentences.

Badie was facing trial alongside 50 others for managing an "operations room" following the dispersal of the two pro-Mohamed Mursi camps in August 2013.

The defendants are accused of using the operations room to "resist the state and spread chaos."

The judge presiding over the trial, Mohamed Nagi Shehata said there is plenty of evidence to prove that the people referred to the Mufti have supplied the Brotherhood with "funds and weapons". 

Consulting Egypt's Grand Mufti is a procedural step adopted in all cases which involve death sentences. The Mufti's rulings are not binding, yet it is customary for the court to adopt them.

The court postponed the verdict against the remaining defendants to April 11.

Among the defendants awaiting a verdict is hunger-striking detainee Mohamed Soltan, the son of Brotherhood leading figure Salah Soltan. The latter was among those referred to the Mufti on Monday.

Mohamed Soltan has been on hunger strike since January 2014 in protest over his detention, maintaining the longest hunger strike among those detained in Egypt. Soltan has repeatedly refused to end his strike and his life is believed to be in danger.