Egypt court quashes Morsi life sentence

AN EGYPTIAN appeals court yesterday quashed one of two life sentences handed down to Mohamed Morsi since his 2013 overthrow, in the Islamist ex-president’s second appeals victory in a week.

The court ordered a retrial in the case, Morsi’s lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud said, adding: “The verdict was full of legal flaws.” The ruling also quashed the sentences against several Muslim Brotherhood officials who stood trial alongside Morsi on charges of spying for Iran and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The decision was the latest legal victory for the 65-year-old, who has been convicted and sentenced in all cases against him since being removed from office in 2013. Morsi was Egypt’s first freely elected leader, taking power after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak. But his year in power proved deeply divisive and he was overthrown by then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood followed, with hundreds of its supporters killed and thousands jailed or sentenced to death.

The courts’ handling of the cases against Morsi and his supporters, many of whom have been convicted after mass trials lasting just days, has drawn criticism from Western governments, human rights groups and the United Nations.

Last week, the Court of Cassation also overturned a death sentence handed down against Morsi on charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising against Mubarak.

From next Monday, the court is to start reviewing a second life sentence handed down against Morsi in a separate trial on charges of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them over to Qatar, a longstanding supporter of the Brotherhood. Last month, it upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Morsi on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.