IN THE past two years Muhammad Morsi has lost the presidency and his freedom. Now his life may be in jeopardy. Egypt’s first democratically elected president and 105 other defendants (including 70 Palestinians tried in absentia) were sentenced to death on May 16th for a prison escape during the revolution of 2011.

Mr Morsi was spared the death penalty in a separate case, in which he and several of his Muslim Brothers were accused of plotting to destabilise Egypt with the help of foreign powers. It is unlikely that he will be executed anytime soon. Appeals can last years and taking his life would risk further inflaming Egypt’s already furious Islamists. The death sentence will now be reviewed by Egypt's most senior Muslim theologian.

Mr Morsi was toppled in 2013 by the current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, after mass protests against his rule. Mr Sisi has since crushed the Muslim Brotherhood, labeling it a terrorist organisation. Hundreds of its supporters have been killed and thousands jailed amid a broader crackdown on civil society. The group’s spiritual leader, Muhammad Badie, was sentenced to death in April. Mr Morsi himself had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for inciting the killing of protesters in 2012. Human-rights groups have called the trials a sham.

At the time of Mr Morsi's escape he and other Brotherhood leaders, along with many activists, were being held by Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former dictator, under emergency powers and without formal detention orders. During the turmoil of 2011 militants from the Palestinian group Hamas used tunnels under Gaza's border to enter Egypt, where they besieged several prisons and released Mr Morsi and other inmates, say prosecutors.

Mr Sisi insists that Egyptian justice is not politicised, but compare Mr Morsi’s treatment with that of Mr Mubarak, who may soon be released after four years in and out of detention. A corruption charge against him was upheld on May 9th, but most other cases against him have been dropped or overturned since Mr Sisi—in many ways a Mubarak clone—ousted Mr Morsi. Mr Sisi himself has overseen the killing of hundreds of protesters, mostly Muslim Brothers.

Elsewhere political Islamists have benefitted from the Sunni world’s focus on Iran. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has taken a more conciliatory approach to the Brotherhood and its affiliates, in part because it needs their help in Syria and Yemen. The Brotherhood is prominent in Syria’s exiled opposition, which gets help from the Gulf. Islah, Yemen’s branch of the Brotherhood, has clashed with Houthi rebels, the targets of a Saudi-led air campaign.

But don’t expect a reprieve in Egypt in the near future. Mr Morsi still faces two more trials—for sharing secrets with Qatar and insulting the judiciary.