Former President Mohamed Morsi, 2 Aljazeera journalists and female reporter sentenced to life imprisonment by Egyptian law court

An Egyptian court on Saturday, June
19, sentenced former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to life in
prison for leading the Muslim
Brotherhood and 15 years for
stealing secret Egyptian state security documents.


The court acquitted Morsi of charges
of having supplied Qatar with
classified documents but sentenced
him to life for leading an unlawful
organisation, his lawyer Abdel
Moneim Abdel Maksoud told AFP. The ousted president was also
convicted of having “stolen secret
documents concerning state
security” and handed another 15-
year jail term, the lawyer added.

Qatar was a main backer of Morsi
and his Muslim Brotherhood movement while he was in power
between 2012 and July 2013, when the military overthrew and detained him.

Morsi has been sentenced to death in a separate trial for his alleged role in prison breaks and attacks on police stations during the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongmant Hosni Mubarak. He has also received a life sentence
and a 20-year jail term in two other
trials.

On Saturday the court confirmed
death sentences against six
defendants, including three journalists tried in absentia who
allegedly helped relay secret
documents to Qatar. The journalists, Ibrahim Mohamed Hilal and Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar
Mohamed Sablan, both of Qatar-
based Al-Jazeera channels.

The third, Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, a female reporter with pro-Muslim Brotherhood news outlet Rassd. The three others sentenced to death, who were present at the trial, were documentary producer Ahmed Abho, EgyptAir cabin crew member Mohammed Kilani and Ahmed Thabet, a university teaching assistant.

All three convicted can appeal to the
court of cassation. Those who were
tried in absentia can seek a retrial if
they appear in person.

Source: AFP