Former Egyptian President Morsi, Al-Jazeera Journalists Jailed

An Egyptian court sentenced former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to life imprisonment Saturday for allegedly passing state secrets to Qatar, a regional rival. Morsi’s secretary, Amin El-Sirafy, received an additional 15-year sentence for a lesser crime.

The journalists have been identified as Ibrahim Mohamed Hilal and Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan, both of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel. Included within these trials were two Al Jazeera journalists who were sentenced to death in absentia.

The Brotherhood was banned and declared a terrorist group after Morsi was ousted.

Morsi was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Cairo court.

Following mass protests against Morsi’s rule, then-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sissi overthrew him and became the presidential incumbent in 2014.

But in a statement released late on Saturday by Qatar’s foreign ministry, officials in Doha said the verdict was unfounded.

The charges related to the leaking of intelligence, military, and national security files and information to Qatar and to Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera. Six suspects, among them three journalists, were sentenced to death through hanging.

The trail is the fifth for the former president, who has already been convicted on charges including espionage, inciting the killing of protesters, insulting the judiciary and escaping from prison during the January 2011 uprising.

Six other defendants, who are also members of the Muslim Brotherhood, were sentenced to death by hanging on the same charges.

“Al Jazeera continues to reject any accusations that it has in any way compromised its journalistic integrity”, an article said.

Jihadists who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group intensified their attacks following Morsi’s overthrow, killing hundreds of Egyptian policemen and soldiers, mainly in the north of the Sinai Peninsula. His various sentences are still being appealed. They had been sentenced to three years in prison for airing what a court described as “false news” and coverage biased in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt’s judicial system has been castigated by worldwide human rights organisations, with trials described as grossly unfair.

Several senior leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers have been sentenced to death in different cases since Morsi’s toppling.