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Egyptian Court adds 40 Years of Jail to ex-President Mursi, Second Sentence of Treason | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Deposed President Mohamed Mursi greets his lawyers from behind bars at a court wearing the red uniform of a prisoner sentenced to death REUTERS


An Egyptian Court has sentenced yesterday deposed former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to 40 years in jail in the publicly known case of “Qatar Espionage.” The ruling is Morsi’s second sentence after he was found guilty of espionage last year for collaborating with the Islamic Resistance Movement of Hamas.

The Cairo Court also confirmed, Saturday June 18, death sentences against six people in the same case.
Yesterday’s ruling came to raise the sentences against the former Egyptian president to 85 years in prison.

Cairo’s Criminal Court handed down Morsi yesterday a life sentence in jail, which in Egypt is equivalent to 25 years. In the same ruling, Morsi and other members from the terrorism Muslim Brotherhood received an additional 15 years in intense jail for supplying Qatar with classified documents.

The six people sentenced to death are: Ahmad Ali Abdo Afifi (film and documentary producer), Mohammed Adel Hamed Kilani (Flight attendant at Egypt Air), Ahmad Ismael Thabet Ismael (Student at University), Asmaa Mohammed Al-Khatib (Reporter for Rassd), Alaa Amr Mohammed Sablan (Jordanian, works for the Qatari Al Jazeera Channel) and Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal (Head of the News Department at the Qatari Al Jazeera Channel).

On May 7, the court had referred the case of Morsi’s six co-defendants to the country’s Mufti to consider the death sentences.

Morsi had appeared on Saturday wearing the red uniform of prisoners sentenced to death. Morsi has previously received a death penalty over a mass jailbreak following the 2011 uprising.

On Saturday, the deposed President had greeted his supporters who were present in the court, in the absence of demonstrations usually organized by members of the Muslim Brotherhood outside the court.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned and totally rejected the mentioning of Qatar in the verdict.

The ministry’s director of information, Ahmed Al Rumaih said that although the ruling is not final, it goes against truth and contains misleading claims which are contrary to the policy of the State of Qatar towards all sister countries, including Egypt.

He added that the charge of espionage for Qatar against a former president and media men is surprising and unacceptable.

Rumaihi added that the verdicts lack the proper sense of justice and constitute an unprecedented and dangerous step in the relations between Arab countries.