An Egyptian appeals court has overturned a death sentence handed down against ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamad Mursi in one of four trials since his 2013 overthrow, a judicial official said.
The Court of Cassation ordered that Mursi be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising which toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.
Five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, who also received death sentences in June 2015, will be retried too.
Nearly 100 others who were tried in absentia are unaffected by the appeals ruling.
Last month, the same appeals court upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Mursi in April in a separate trial on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.
Mursi has also been sentenced to life in prison in two other trials.
Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president, Mursi came to power after Mubarak’s overthrow.
He was toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.
The Brotherhood has since been blacklisted and subjected to a crackdown that has killed hundreds of its supporters and jailed thousands.
Source: AFP
