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Egypt Court Overturns Morsi Death Sentence in Espionage Case

November 22, 2016

Egypt’s Court of Cassation overturned on Tuesday a life sentence against former president Mohamed Morsi on charges of espionage with Palestinian group Hamas. The court also dropped death sentences against senior Muslim Brotherhood officials, including Khairat Al-Shater and Mohamed Al-Beltagi, as well as the life sentence handed down to the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie. A retrial has been ordered for all the defendants. Last week, another life sentence previously handed down to ousted Islamist president Morsi was also overturned and a retrial was ordered. During the 2011 revolution, Egypt’s Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood escaped from Wadi al-Natroun prison. Charges were brought against Morsi and other defendants for damaging and torching prison buildings, murder and attempted murder of prison guards and looting. While Morsi has never publicly given his account of the Wadi el-Natroun prison break, the former president had made a phone call to Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV as he was being freed. In the interview, Morsi claimed that prison guards fled after they failed to regain control of the environment. During the trial, prosecutors had called the prison break as one of Egypt’s biggest ever conspiracies, saying…


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