Egyptian court seals death sentence on Ex-president Morsi

The death sentence passed on Mohamed Morsi, former Egyptian president, in May, was on Tuesday upheld by an Egyptian court.

Morsi had been originally sentenced to life imprisonment and death in two different cases relating to charges of killing, kidnapping and other offences during a 2011 mass jail break.

He got the death penalty alongside Mohamed Badie, the general guide of the Muslim brotherhood and four other brotherhood leaders.

According to BBC, one hundred and one other defendants were also sentenced to death in absentia.

Earlier on Tuesday, just before death penalty, the court sentenced Morsi to life in prison in a separate case related to conspiring with foreign groups.

According to State TV, the judge ruled that the Muslim brotherhood “collaborated with Palestinian Hamas to infiltrate Egypt’s eastern borders and attack prisons”.

Sixteen other Muslim brotherhood members were sentenced to death on charges of delivering secret documents abroad between 2005 and 2013.

Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president after the downfall of long time autocrat Hosni Mubarak regime in 2011, but was himself overthrown by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Members of the Muslim brotherhood and a large chunk of the international community have condemned the sentences, saying it’s below international standards.

Yahya Hamid, a former minister in Morsi’s cabinet and head of international relations for the brotherhood, said in Istanbul on Tuesday that the “verdict is a nail in the coffin of democracy in Egypt”.