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| Mohammed Morsi, deposed Egyptian president (Image source: BBC) |
An Egyptian court has
sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in jail for ordering the
arrest and torture of protesters during his rule. It is the first verdict
he has received since his overthrow and is one of several trials he faces. Morsi was deposed by the
military in July 2013 following mass street protests against his rule. Since then, the
authorities have banned his Muslim Brotherhood movement and arrested thousands
of his supporters.
Morsi and 14 other
Brotherhood figures escaped a more serious charge of inciting the killing of
protesters, which could have carried the death sentence.
Most of the other
defendants were also given 20-year prison sentences. Morsi's legal team have
said they will appeal.
BBC report continues:
This verdict is just one
of several Mr Morsi faces. They include:
- Colluding with foreign militants in a plot to free Islamists in mass prison breaks during the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak
- Espionage and conspiring to commit terrorist acts in Egypt with the Palestinian movement Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards
- Endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar via the Doha-based Al Jazeera network
Morsi stood accused of
inciting supporters to kill a journalist and opposition protesters in clashes
outside the presidential palace in late 2012.
As crowds grew outside
the palace, Morsi ordered the police to disperse them.
They refused, so the
Muslim Brotherhood brought in their own supporters. Eleven people died in the
ensuing clashes, mostly from the Brotherhood.
The defendants were
confined to a cage during the verdict Security was tightened outside court for
the hearing.
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Morsi's
co-defendants gave a defiant four-fingered salute during the hearing (Image source: BBC)
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Hearing the verdict,
Morsi and the other defendants gave a four-fingered salute, a symbol of the
deadly clearance of Brotherhood supporters at the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in
2013.
A senior Brotherhood figure,
Amr Darrag, called the ruling a "travesty of justice".
"They want to pass a
life sentence for democracy in Egypt," he said.
Ramy Ghanem, a lawyer for
one of those injured in the clashes, expressed surprise that Morsi escaped the
more serious charge, but told the AFP news agency the sentences are "not
bad".
There were deadly clashes
between supporters and opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood in late 2012 Morsi
was toppled by the army in 2013 after mass street protests against his rule
However the brother of
one of the victims said he wanted to "enter the cage and pull out his
[Morsi's] intestines", according to Reuters.
Morsi has rejected the
authority of the courts, shouting during his first trial that he was the victim
of a military coup.
On Monday, a court
sentenced 22 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death for an attack on a police
station in Cairo, part of an ongoing crackdown against the Islamist movement.
Morsi was Egypt's first
freely-elected president, but protests began building less than a year into his
rule when he issued a decree granting himself far-reaching powers.
A court dropped charges of
conspiracy to kill protesters against Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, last
year.
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