{"id":116641,"date":"2015-05-16T13:26:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T13:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=116641"},"modified":"2015-05-16T13:26:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T13:26:33","slug":"mohammed-morsi-egypts-ex-leader-sentenced-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=116641","title":{"rendered":"Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s ex-leader, sentenced to death"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Egyptian court has pronounced death sentences on ousted president Mohammed Morsi and more than 100 other people over a mass prison break in 2011.<\/p>\n

Morsi is already serving a 20-year prison term for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while in power.<\/p>\n

Egypt’s religious authorities will now have to give their opinion before the sentence can be carried out.<\/p>\n

Morsi’s supporters from his Muslim Brotherhood movement have described the charges against him as “farcical”.<\/p>\n

He was deposed by the military in July 2013 following mass street protests against his rule.<\/p>\n

Since then, the authorities have banned the Muslim Brotherhood and arrested thousands of his supporters.<\/p>\n

\"Protest
Morsi’s supporters took to the streets in protest after he was given a 20-year jail sentence in April<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morsi raised both fists in defiance as the sentences were given.<\/p>\n

He was one of more than 100 other defendants to be sentenced to death for their involvement in mass jail breaks during the 2011 uprising against Egypt’s then-president, Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n

Morsi, who escaped from Wadi Natroun prison in January 2011, was accused of colluding with foreign militants in a plot to free Islamists during the mass prison breaks.<\/p>\n

Many of his co-defendants were Palestinians accused of being members of militant group Hamas, and were charged in absentia.<\/p>\n

The court also issued rulings on another case, sentencing 16 Muslim Brotherhood members, including deputy leader Khairat al-Shater, to death on spying charges.<\/p>\n

Morsi, who also faces espionage charges, will be issued a verdict in that case at a later date.<\/p>\n

\"Fireworks
Huge crowds gathered in Tahrir Square to celebrate when the military ousted Mr Morsi<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in a crackdown on the Brotherhood following Morsi’s removal in 2013.<\/p>\n

However, it is thought that only one such death sentence has been carried out so far.<\/p>\n

All death sentences must first be sent to the grand mufti, Egypt’s highest religious authority, for his non-binding opinion on whether they should stand.<\/p>\n

Convictions are still open to appeal, even if the grand mufti gives his approval.<\/p>\n

‘Erasing democracy’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morsi’s supporters have condemned the cases against him as a political show trial.<\/p>\n

Amr Darrag, a former minister in Morsi’s government, described Saturday as “one of the darkest days” in Egypt’s history.<\/p>\n

“These latest charges are another deeply disturbing attempt to permanently erase democracy and the democratic process in Egypt,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The death sentence was also condemned by Amnesty International, which said it had become a tool “to purge the political opposition”, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who likened it to a return to “ancient Egypt”.<\/p>\n

Morsi was Egypt’s first freely elected president, but protests began building less than a year into his rule when he issued a decree granting himself far-reaching powers.<\/p>\n

The armed forces, led by then-military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, ousted Morsi in July 2013.<\/p>\n

In May 2014, Mr Sisi became president after securing a landslide victory in presidential elections with a turnout of 46%.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Egyptian court has pronounced death sentences on ousted president Mohammed Morsi and more than 100 other people over a mass prison break in 2011. Morsi is already serving a 20-year prison term for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while in power. Egypt’s religious authorities will now have to give their opinion before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":116642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-116641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}