Egypt: Former President Mohammed Morsi gets preliminary death sentence in Court

by Benson Agoha | filed under Egypt

An Egyptian court has Saturday sentenced former President Mohammed Morsi to death for passing state secrets and for the mass prison break in 2011.

The Cairo Criminal Court also issued initial verdicts of death against Brotherhood leaders Shater and Beltagy and 14 others involved in a spying case.

According to Egypts Ahram Online, the Court on Saturday issued a preliminary ruling of death to former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and 105 other defendants in the trial known as the "Natroun Jailbreak case."

The court has sent its decision in the "Natroun case" to the country's Grand Mufti for a consultative review as required by Egyptian law,  setting 2 June as a date for a final verdict.

The court also issued a preliminary ruling of death to Brotherhood leaders Mohamed El-Beltagy and Khairat El-Shater and 14 others in the trial known as "Hamas Espionage case."

The court also sent its decision in the "Hamas Espionage case" to the country's Grand Mufti for a consultative review as required by Egyptian law,  setting 2 June as a date for a final verdict.

The Grand Mufti's opinion is non-binding to the court, but the defendants retain the right to appeal any final verdict.

Saturday's capital punishment ruling against Morsi makes him the first president in Egypt's history to face the possibility of death by hanging if court ratifies its initial decision on 2 June or he loses his projected appeal.

In April, Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for inciting violence and ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators during the December 2012 clashes between his supporters and opponents.

Saturday's verdicts bring the total number of criminal convictions against the ousted president, who has faced six separate criminal trials since July 2013, to three.

by Benson Agoha (with contributions from Fox News and Ahram Online).