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By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Tuesday, Apr 21, 2015
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| Ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi gestures after his trial behind bars at a court in the outskirts of Cairo, April 21, 2015. | Photo: Reuters
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Despite being acquitted of murder charges that would have seen him face the death penalty, Egypt's ousted Former President Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to 20 years in jail Tuesday on charges of violence and intimidation.
The Cairo criminal court also sentenced 12 Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters to 20 years in prison for violent clashes outside the presidential palace in Dec. 2012 that killed at least 10 people.
Morsi, who was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, still faces the death penalty in two other trials, including one in which he is accused of spying for foreign powers and another for escaping from prison during the 2011 revolts that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year dictatorship.
The man who was Egypt's first democratically-elected president, heard his sentence delivered while in a courtroom at Egypt’s national police academy. His defense lawyers insisted that there is no proof that Morsi incited the clashes, and that most of those killed were Brotherhood members.
President el-Sisi has taken strong stances against the Muslim Brotherhood, which Morsi represented. The Islamist religious, political, and social movement was banned as a “terrorist organization” last December.
Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of the group's members to death in mass trials that have drawn strong international criticism. Last week a court confirmed the death sentence for Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 13 others for planning attacks against the state.
Protests broke out in anticipation of the verdict, and it is likely that the announcement will lead to further clashes between state security forces and sympathizers of Morsi’s outlawed movement.
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