(Guidance Bureau) of the Muslim Brotherhood, since 1987. He was elected Member of Parliament in 1987 for the East Cairo electoral constituency. In 1996, he was court-martialed, charged with being head of the Muslim Brotherhood International Organization, and was sentenced to three years. He was released in 1999. He oversaw the Brotherhood at the time of the Egyptian parliamentary elections of 2005 in which Islamists gained a strong opposition foothold (88/454 seats). On October 19, 2009 Egyptian newspapers reported that Akef had resigned as the general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood after a dispute among various leaders in the group. However the following day reports on the Muslim Brotherhood website stated that Akef had not resigned and would continue to serve as the group's general guide until elections in January 2010. Following Sisi's military takeover of Egypt, the Brotherhood was deemed a terrorist group by the new regime and Akef was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. Political beliefs Akef has been described as "unapologetic about charges by reformist members regarding the reluctance of the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] to engage more proactively in opposition to the Mubarak regime in the first decade of the twenty-first century" (27). However, in 2005, he would call Mubarak's rule "failed and finished." In 2007, he is reported by historian Fawaz Gerges as having stated: "Critics who call on us to protest in the streets do not think about the grave consequences. Unlike other small groups, we, as the biggest organization, act responsibly and measure our actions carefully...I have to protect the movement." He is said to have "belittled questions related to the dominance of the old guard" even as younger reformist members sought to establish a stronger place in the Brotherhood's leadership. In 2005, he denounced what he called "the myth of the Holocaust" in defending Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, and accused the United States of attacking anyone who raised questions about the Holocaust. In the mid-2000s, he considered anti-American insurgents in Iraq to be "freedom fighters." Personal life Akef's health deteriorated while he was imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities after the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état; his daughter affirmed that he was isolated in the prison hospital and was only allowed a visit once a week, despite his old age and poor health. His daughter is married to Mahmoud Ezzat, with whom she has five children with. Death Akef died