Ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, along with more than 100 other defendants, was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court Saturday for his role in a mass prison break in 2011.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, is already serving a 20-year sentence in jail for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while president.
The then-leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement was elected president in 2012 after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
As with all capital punishment cases, the sentence will be sent to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's highest authority, for his opinion. Convictions can still be appealed, even if the Grand Mufti approves the sentencing. A decision is expected on June 2.
Hours after ousted former Egyptian president Mohamad Morsi was given a preliminary death sentence, three judges were killed and another seriously wounded in North Sinai when they were attacked by an armed militia while traveling to a North Sinai court.
No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack, however the State of Sinai, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, is considered to be the most active armed group operating in the area, and could be a possible culprit, according to Daily News Egypt. The group often targets those associated with state security and members of the military – and has been been fighting the government in the Sinai since Mr. Morsi's government was removed from power in July 2013.
On Saturday, an Egyptian court sentenced more than 100 men – including Morsi – to death for escaping prison in 2011 and contributing to the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's regime. The sentencing is likely to further agitate insurgents who are sympathetic Muslim Brotherhood.
“All the world will pay for this death sentence, will pay for their silence about the sentence, and for betraying the principles of freedom and justice,” Ahmed Ramy Elhofy, a Muslim Brotherhood co-defendant tried in-absentia, told The Guardian.
The Times of Israel reported, that by carrying out a death sentence for Morsi, Egypt's government may trigger unrest in cities across the country rather than deterring enlistment in Muslim Brotherhood activities.
Morsi's death penalty sentence is considered another sign that Egypt is doubling down on Islamist groups even as it fights ISIS-affiliated groups in Libya as well as in its own backyard in the Sinai Peninsula. The BBC reported that North Sinai has been in a state of emergency with a curfew since October when an insurgent attack on a security checkpoint killed dozens of soldiers. The Egyptian army has stepped up operations to bring stability to the region, but so far the military says that the coordination and sophistication of the terrorist attacks is only increasing.
Some observers are concerned that the response by the Egyptian security apparatus to these militant Islamic attacks means that Egypt has slipped back into its authoritarian days. In that context, if Morsi is executed, Muslim Brotherhood supporters would take it as a provocation.
“Morsi being an Islamist leader and a symbolic figure … has to be punished harshly in order to convey the unambiguous message to all Islamists and other activists that there is no going back to the pre-June 2013 democratic transition," Yasser El-Shimy, an Egyptian academic based at Boston University told The Guardian. "Ultimately, if the verdict is carried out, it will push many Islamist youths further away from peaceful political participation, and make it virtually impossible to achieve political reconciliation in Egypt.”
