Egypt’s former president Mohammed Morsi jailed for 20 years

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Egypt's former president Mohammed Morsi was today sentenced to 20 years in prison in a case related to killing of protesters outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.

It is the first verdict that has been issued to Morsi in the case. In July 2013, he was ousted by the military subsequent to the mass protests a year after he was appointed the country's first democratically elected leader.

Morsi was democratically chosen Egypt's president a year after an upheaval squashed 30 years' rule of Hosni Mubarak. However, Morsi's 12 months rule never tried to tackle the country's social and economic issues rather focused on empowering political control.

The first anniversary of Morsi's administration witnessed his opponents organizing large protests and demanding his resignation from the post. However, three days later, the then military chief – and present president – Abdul Fattah al-Sisi ousted Morsi. Meanwhile the interim authorities followed a clampdown on Morsi's supporters, which resulted in the killing of more than 1,400 people.

Implicated for provoking the supporters to kill a journalist and two opposition protesters, and for issuing order for the torture and unlawful detention of others during the uprising outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012, Morsi and 14 other senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders underwent a trial in November 2013.

Morsi is also facing trials in these issues:

• He named a judge in a public speech and accused him of overseeing fraud in previous elections, resulting in the charge of abusing the judiciary.
• Charge of planning a scheme with foreign militants to liberate Islamists in mass prison breaks during the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.
• Charge of conspiring to execute terrorist activities in Egypt with the Palestinian movement Hamas, Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
• Charge of putting national security in jeopardy by disclosing sensitive and secretive documents to Qatar via the Doha-based Al Jazeera network.