Amid massive security, an ad hoc Cairo court has sentenced overthrown former president Mohamed Morsi to 20 years behind bars for being behind the killing of protesters in the lead-up to his ouster in 2012.
Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood Party had risen to power just a year earlier as Egypt’s first democratically elected government, following the popular uprising that ended the autocratic tenure of former leader Hosni Mubarak. A year later, many of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership found themselves in jail, outed in a military coup, while many of the former Mubarak regime, including Mubarak himself, who have been in jail since his ouster, are starting to be acquitted of all charges.
Tuesday’s verdict sparked no immediate street protests, reflecting the toll of a heavy security crackdown on any show of dissident — either by Islamists or secular-leaning activists.
During the hearing, Judge Ahmed Youssef issued his verdict as Morsi and other defendants in the case — mostly Brotherhood leaders — stood in a soundproof glass cage inside a makeshift courtroom at Egypt’s national police academy. Seven of the accused were tried in absentia.
In addition to Morsi, 12 Brotherhood leaders and Islamist supporters, including Mohammed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian, also were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Judge Youssef dropped murder charges involved in the case and said the sentences were linked to the “show of force” and unlawful detention associated with the violence outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Morsi’s supporters attacked opposition protesters who were demanding that Morsi call off a referendum on an Islamist-drafted constitution. Clashes developed into deadly confrontations overnight that killed at least 10 people.
Morsi faces four other trials on charges that vary from undermining national security by conspiring with foreign groups and orchestrating a prison break. Thousands of Brotherhood members are in jail facing a variety of charges, most linking them to violence that followed Morsi’s 2013 overthrow.
Morsi, who is allowed to appeal his sentence, is being held at a high security prison near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
