Deposed Egyptian president no longer faces threat of execution but continues to serve long jail terms

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An Egyptian court has overturned a death sentence against the deposed president Mohamed Morsi, and ordered a retrial.

The Muslim Brotherhood leader was sentenced to death in June 2015 in connection with a mass jail break during Egypt’s 2011 uprising.

How Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected president, ended up on death row Read more

The first president to be democratically elected after the revolution, Morsi was overthrown in mid-2013 by general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during mass protests against his rule, and immediately arrested.

Tuesday’s ruling by the court of cassation means Morsi is no longer under threat of execution, although he is serving three long jail sentences. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole on charges arising from the killing of protesters in December 2012; 40 years on charges of spying for Qatar; and a life sentence on charges of spying for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Sisi has tried to crush the Brotherhood, which he says is part of a terrorist network that poses an existential threat to the Arab and western worlds. The Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest political movement, says its activities are entirely peaceful and denies using violent methods.