Mohamed Badie Abdul Mageed Samy

Organisation: Muslim Brotherhood
Position: Chairman, Supreme Guide

Biography: The Muslim Brotherhood won nearly 20 per cent of the Egyptian legislature’s seats in the country’s 2005 elections, making it Egypt’s largest opposition group.

Mohamed Badie Abdul Mageed Samy, now 67, has been a permanent member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s executive board since 1993. He is an associate professor of pathology at Beni Suef University’s faculty of veterinary medicine.

He was appointed as a lecturer at Assiut University in 1965, before being arrested and sentenced to 15 years in jail. He was released in 1974 as part of a deal between former president Anwar el-Sadat and the group.

His election by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau is widely considered to mark a return to conservatism. Badie took a major step towards restructuring the movement on 27 January this year, when he appointed three of the group’s old guard leaders as his deputies. 

Contact: www.ikhwanweb.com