(DNE Photo)
Former president Mohamed Morsi, and 12 other defendants, sentenced to 20 years in prison in Presidential Palace case
The Cairo Criminal Court postponed Tuesday the final verdict against former president Mohamed Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the espionage and prison break trials to 16 June.
The court had previously referred the files of the defendants to the Grand Mufti for consultation. The defendants include the former president, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, former parliamentary speaker Saad Al-Katatni, and renowned Muslim scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.
Morsi and 34 other Brotherhood members are accused of storming Wadi El-Natrun prison and escaping it in the early days of the 25 January Revolution. The charges included kidnapping police officers and detaining them in the Gaza Strip.
Outside the heavy fortified Police Academy, Special Forces from the riot police secured the vicinity of the court.
Only Egyptian state television was allowed in to the court, while media personnel from other outlets were allowed to report from outside the Police Academy.
Morsi was sentenced in April to 20 years imprisonment in the ‘Presidential Palace’ case, alongside 12 other defendants. They were accused of violence that erupted outside the Presidential Palace on 5 December 2012.
Morsi has been in custody since his ouster by the military on 3 July 2013.
Until his first appearance in court on 4 November 2013, his place of detention was unknown.
The former president, who came to power on 30 June 2012, admitted in a televised interview with Al Jazeera channel on 28 January 2011 that civilians stormed into the prison and freed them.
