An Egyptian court sentenced former president Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison on Tuesday, handing down the first verdict against the ousted leader since he was detained by the military in July 2013.
The court found and 14 more members of the Muslim Brotherhood guilty of inciting violence against protesters who had staged a sit-in outside the presidential palace in 2012, when Morsi was still in power.
Morsi and the other defendants, including senior Brotherhood leaders Essam Erian and Mohamed Beltagy, were acquitted of another charge of premeditated murder, which carries the death sentence. The verdict was broadcast live on state television after months of hearings that were closed to the press.
Morsi and others were placed in a soundproof glass enclosure inside a makeshift courtroom at Egypt’s national police academy
In an e-mailed statement from Istanbul, exiled Muslim Brotherhood leader Amr Darrag called the verdict “a travesty of justice” and “entirely unsupported by evidence.” Egypt's government outlawed the Brotherhood as a terrorist group after deposing Morsi in 2013.
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The rights group Amnesty International also said it had documented numerous irregularities in the trial and called for the convictions to be overturned. The verdict can still be appealed.
“This verdict shatters any remaining illusion of independence and impartiality in Egypt’s criminal justice system,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Prosecutors had accused supporters of then-president Morsi of descending on a peaceful sit-in outside Cairo’s Ittihadiya presidential palace, where they detained, beat and tortured a number of demonstrators. The evidence included testimony from alleged torture victims and forensic reports detailing their injuries, Egyptian state media said.
The melee in December 2012 kicked off two nights of clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi crowds, and in which at least 10 people, including Morsi supporters, were killed.
The 2012 demonstration outside the palace had been held in opposition to Morsi’s tightening grip on power just five months into his presidency, after he declared his decisions immune from judicial review to push through a constitution drafted by the Brotherhood — which was the main Islamist group opposing the rule of former strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Morsi and the Brotherhood had grown increasingly suspicious of security forces they believed were aligned with Mubarak, who spent decades jailing the Islamists. Mass protests against Morsi in June 2013 enabled Egypt's military to intervene and topple the Islamist leader.
Morsi's defense minister, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, spearheaded the coup and was later elected president. Last November, a Cairo court for his own alleged role in ordering police to fire on demonstrators during Egypt’s uprising in 2011.
Morsi was arrested on July 3, 2013, and held incommunicado until his appearance at a court hearing four months later. He is currently detained at a maximum-security prison near Egypt’s second-largest city, Alexandria.
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Morsi still faces charges of espionage and another indictment for during the 2011 revolt. Both of those crimes are punishable by death.
Egyptian judges have issued a hundreds of death sentences against alleged Brotherhood supporters in a series of mass trials that rights groups say violate international standards and have discredited the country’s judiciary.
Authorities have also jailed journalists and liberal and secular activists as part of a broad crackdown on alleged dissent.
Heba Habib contributed to this report.
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