Egypt's highest court quashes ex-President Morsi's death penalty

The Egyptian Court of Cassation annulled Tuesday the death sentence of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and ordered a new trial before a criminal court.

The Court of Cassation also quashed the convictions of five of Morsi’s co-defendants, including the former Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie.

In the same trial, nearly one hundred other people were sentenced to death in absentia.

Morsi was sentenced to death in June 2015 for his role in massive prison escapes and attacks against the police during the revolt that expelled Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011.

Mohamed Morsi has already been sentenced in four trials since his dismissal.

In 2015, he was sentenced to life in prison in a trial for espionage, this time in favour of Iran, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

His last conviction was in June 18 in another trial for espionage and this time for “stealing secret documents concerning state security and delivering them to Qatar through intermediaries”. He was again sentenced to life imprisonment.

Morsi is under detention at the Borg-el-Arab prison near Alexandria.