Cairo criminal court sentences Morsi, who was already in prison, alongside 19 others and fines him £83,000

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 2m Egyptian pounds (£83,000) after being found guilty of insulting the judiciary.

Nineteen others were also jailed for three years on Saturday, but fined lesser amounts ranging from 30,000 to 1m Egyptian pounds.

The case involved 25 defendants, five of whom – including the prominent human rights activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah and the political commentator Amr Hamzawy – were fined 30,000 Egyptian pounds. Abdel-Fattah is serving a five-year sentence for participating in an illegal protest in 2013, and Hamzawy lives in exile.

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The defendants were accused of insulting the judiciaryin media statements and on social media. The prosecution argued the statements were inciteful and expressed contempt.

The court ordered all defendants to pay 1m Egyptian pounds to the Judges Club, an unofficial body in charge of dealing with judicial affairs.

Among those who received prison sentences were 11 former members of parliament, the prominent Islamist lawyer Montaser Al-Zayat, and four journalists, Abdel Halim Qandel, Nour Al-Deen Abdel Hafez, Abdel Rahman Al-Qaradawi and Ahmed Al-Sharqawi.

All the verdicts can be appealed.

Morsi is still being tried in several other cases, some related to espionage and conspiring with foreign groups. A death sentence on charges relating to a mass jailbreak was overturned in November 2016.

The former president, who led the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, is already serving a life sentence after being found guilty of spying for Qatar. He was also given a 20-year sentence over the killing of protesters in December 2012.



Following Morsi’s overthrow, Egyptian authorities launched a severe crackdown on Islamists and secular and liberal activists, thousands of whom were jailed. The government has also banned all unauthorised demonstrations under a law adopted in late 2013.

Morsi came to power in 2013 following the 25 January revolution, but little more than a year later mass protests against him led to his removal by the armed forces on 3 July 2014.

Violent clashes between his supporters and security forces increased, reaching their peak following the violent dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweyya sit-in on 14 August 2013. The protesters demanded Morsi be returned to his post as Egypt’s legitimate president, describing the 3 July events as a military coup.