Egypt’s ousted Prez Morsi jailed for 20 yrs

Egypt’s ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was on Tuesday sentenced to 20 years in jail by a court here over charges related to the killing of 10 protesters when he was in power, the first ruling against the country’s first freely elected leader. The 63-year-old former president was, however, acquitted of murder charges in the killing outside the presidential palace in December, 2012 that would have seen him face the death penalty.

Besides Morsi, the criminal court sentenced 12 other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including senior figures Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian, to 20 years in jail as they stood in a soundproof glass cage inside a makeshift courtroom at the national police academy here. Judge Ahmed Sabry Youssef read out the ruling against him, the first in the case, but can be appealed. The sentencing was broadcast live on state television.