Mohamed Morsi sentenced to death by Egyptian court | World news | The Guardian

5/16/15, 17:15

Mohamed Morsi sentenced to death by Egyptian court

An Egyptian court has sentenced the ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death for his
part in a mass jailbreak in 2011.
The verdict, by Judge Shaaban el-Shami, was announced on Saturday in a Cairo court
where Morsi was also facing charges of espionage. As is customary in passing capital
punishment, the death sentence on Morsi and more than 100 others will be referred to
the countrys top Muslim theologian, or mufti, for his non-binding opinion.
Morsi, Egypts first freely elected president, was ousted by the military in July 2013 after
days of mass street protests by Egyptians demanding that he be removed because of his
divisive policies.
His overthrow triggered a government crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood
movement in which hundreds of people have died and thousands have been imprisoned.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/16/mohammed-morsi-sentenced-death-egyptian-court-former-president

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Mohamed Morsi sentenced to death by Egyptian court | World news | The Guardian

5/16/15, 17:15

In May 2014, Morsis successor, the former military chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, secured a
landslide victory in Egypts presidential elections.
Before Saturdays sentencing, Morsi was already serving a 20-year term on charges
linked to the killing of protesters outside a Cairo presidential palace in December 2012.
Defendants in both trials were brought into the caged dock on Saturday ahead of the
verdict. We are free revolutionaries, we will continue the march, they chanted.
Morsi was not brought in, but his co-defendant and Brotherhood leader, Mahmud Badie,
was present, wearing the red uniform of those convicted to death after a previous
sentence.
In Saturdays first case, Morsi and 130 others, including dozens of members of the
Palestinian Hamas movement and Lebanons Shia Hezbollah group, were accused of
escaping from prisons and attacking police during the 2011 uprising against the former
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been blamed for most of the unrest in Egypt, which has
resulted in the death of some 850 people. Egyptian authorities designated it a terrorist
group in December 2013, making even verbal expressions of support punishable by
imprisonment.
In Saturdays second case, Morsi and 35 co-defendants, including Brotherhood leaders,
were accused of conspiring with foreign powers, Hamas and Shia Iran to destabilise
Egypt.
Prosecutors said the defendants carried out espionage activity on behalf of the
international Muslim Brotherhood organisation and Hamas from 2005 to August 2013
with the aim of perpetrating terror attacks in the country in order to spread chaos and
topple the state.
Morsis supporters have said that the charges against him are politically motivated.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/16/mohammed-morsi-sentenced-death-egyptian-court-former-president

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Mohamed Morsi sentenced to death by Egyptian court | World news | The Guardian

5/16/15, 17:15

Rights groups have accused Sisis regime of using the judiciary as a tool to oppress
opposition, with Amnesty International previously denouncing Morsis 20-year jail
sentence as a travesty of justice.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/16/mohammed-morsi-sentenced-death-egyptian-court-former-president

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