An Egyptian court has upheld the death sentence handed to former Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, on charges of killing and kidnapping police officers in a 2011 mass jailbreak.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, and former head of parliament Mohamed Katatny are among 27 defendants who were sentenced to death on similar charges on Tuesday (June 16). Earlier in the day, the same court sentenced Morsi, Badie and 15 others to life in prison for another case, in which defendants are convicted of espionage.
The verdict comes after Morsi, Badie and more than 100 other Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death last month, after they were found guilty of spying and plotting a prison break amid nationwide protests against ousted president Hosni Mubarak in January 2011.
The Cairo Criminal Court then referred the case to the country’s grand mufti for a non-binding review, an action that is compulsory before upholding death sentences in Egypt.
The charges included conspiring with foreign groups that include Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Tuesday’s verdicts upheld the death sentences of Brotherhood leaders Khairat Shater, Mohamed Beltagui and Mohamed Abdel Aati. The death sentences, previously criticized by a number of human rights organizations, were read during a televised session, in which Morsi, Badie and other defendants stood behind a glass cage in the courtroom staged for the case at a police academy in New Cairo. Thirteen other defendants were given death sentences in absentia.
Morsi, who in 2012 became Egypt’s first freely elected president, is already serving a 20-year sentence following his conviction on charges linking him to killing demonstrators during a protest that took place during his tenure. All sentences can be appealed by defendants’ lawyers, prosecutor or both.
