A Cairo court sentenced former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi to 20 years of maximum security prison for charges of show of force and detention associated with physical torture during deadly protests in 2012, on Tuesday. Mursi was also sentenced to five years of probation in the first sentence served against him since his ouster in July 2013.
He was being tried alongside 14 others, including Muslim Brotherhood leading figures. A dozen of them were also handed 20 years in prison, while the other two were handed 10 years each.
The charges were levelled against them after demonstrators protesting in front of the Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012 were killed. They were protesting to object to a constitutional decree issued by the Islamist president.
All defendants were acquitted of murder charges.
Today's verdict is subject to appeal and a lawyer on the defendants' defence team said he intends to appeal it before the Cassation Court.
The former president, ousted since July 2013, faces a multitude of charges in four other trials for accusations of insulting the judiciary, escaping from the Wadi al-Natroun Prison during the 18-day January 25 uprising in 2011, as well as two separate espionage cases.
Clashes erupted at Cairo University on Sunday as a group of pro-Mursi students protested against the former president’s trial. Thirteen people were arrested after the clashes, the cabinet said in a statement, adding that they included the sons of “fugitive” Brotherhood leaders.
