Egypt’s ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was on Tuesday sentenced to 20 years in jail by a court here over charges related to the killing of 10 protesters when he was in power, the first ruling against the country’s first freely elected leader.
The former President was, however, acquitted of murder charges in the killing outside the presidential palace in December, 2012 that would have seen him face the death penalty.
Besides Morsi, the criminal court sentenced 12 other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including senior figures Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian, to 20 years in jail as they stood in a soundproof glass cage inside a makeshift courtroom at the national police academy here.
Judge Ahmed Sabry Youssef read out the ruling against him, the first in the case, but can be appealed. The sentencing was broadcast live on State television.
The conviction and no strong reactions from the party show the dramatic downfall of Egypt’s once-powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its leader.
Morsi — who was deposed by the military in July, 2013 after thousands of people took to the streets demanding his removal — and 13 others were charged with killing protesters, possessing weapons, and inciting violence in the dispersal of the peaceful sit-in in front of the presidential palace.
The judge dropped murder charges against all 14 defendants and said the sentence was linked to the “show of force” and unlawful detention associated with the case.
This is one of the major trials against the Muslim Brotherhood linked ex-President who came to power after the downfall of longtime president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Morsi is currently in prison over other cases, including espionage, escaping from prison during the January 25 Revolution in 2011, insulting the judiciary and spying and handing documents of national security importance to Qatari intelligence through the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel.