Egypt's
deposed president Mursi appeals death sentence: lawyer
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[August 15, 2015]
CAIRO (Reuters) - The
court-appointed legal team representing deposed Egyptian president
Mohamed Mursi filed an appeal on Saturday at the country's highest court
challenging sentences of life imprisonment and death handed down in
June, Mursi's lawyer said.
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The Cairo criminal court sentenced Mursi to death over a mass jail
break during the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak as well as life
imprisonment for giving state secrets to Qatar. It also issued
sweeping punishments against the leadership of the Musim
Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamic group.
The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and four
other leaders were also handed the death penalty. More than 90
others, including influential cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, were
sentenced to death in absentia.
The sentences were part of a crackdown launched after an army
takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following protests against
his rule. Hundreds of Islamists have been killed and thousands
arrested.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/15/images/ads/current/business_directory_filler.png) The government has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group and
has accused it of fomenting an Islamist insurgency since Mursi's
removal, but the group has said it is committed to political change
through peaceful means only.
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Mursi has not appointed a lawyer to defend himself and has refused
to recognize the legitimacy of the court proceedings, saying he
remains the legitimate president of the country.
The government has said the judiciary is independent and it never
intervenes in its work.
(Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad and Haitham Ahmed, Writing by Eric
Knecht, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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