Morsi’s death sentence confirmed
Print Edition
AN Egyptian court yesterday confirmed the death sentence of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi over the mass 2011 prison break that eventually brought him to power, making him the first leader in Egypt’s modern history to potentially face execution.
While this is the first death sentence for Morsi, courts have handed out hundreds of similar sentences against Islamists in mass trials since his 2013 overthrow and a mass crackdown.
Morsi, who served a year as Egypt’s first freely elected president, appeared in court yesterday in a blue prison uniform, enclosed in a cage separate from other defendants held in a glass-covered cage. He listened to the verdict with a slight smile, but said nothing.
Judge Shaaban al-Shami, who led a panel of three judges, issued the ruling after he consulted with Egypt’s Grand Mufti, a religious authority affiliated with the judiciary.
“The court panel has unanimously agreed that there is no room for leniency or mercy for the defendants,” Shami said. He said the Mufti sanctioned the death sentences under crimes of “haraba,” an Islamic term for banditry, bloodshed and waging war on God and society.
The judge also confirmed death sentences for five other imprisoned leading members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, including Mohammed Badie, the group’s leader, and Saad el-Katatni, the head of its short-lived political party. Another 21 imprisoned defendants received life sentences in the case.
Defendants in the case were found guilty of conspiring and attempting to kill police officers in the mass breakout targeting three prisons, enabling some 20,000 inmates to flee, causing chaos in Egypt and breaching its borders with the Gaza Strip. Shami said the prison break received help from the Palestinian Hamas movement, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Sinai militants.
The breakout freed Morsi, who had been arrested soon after the 2011 protests started. He later rode on the Brotherhood’s popularity among conservatives and Islamists to become the country’s president in 2012. Morsi is already serving a 20-year sentence for his part in the killings in 2012 of protesters outside his palace when he was still president.
Earlier, the same judge sentenced Morsi to life term over charges of conspiring with foreign groups, including Hamas.
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