Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi jailed for 20 years

A criminal court in Cairo has sentenced Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first elected president who was ousted by the military in 2013, to twenty years in prison for the use of violence against protesters and torturing opponents.

Twelve of his associates, most of them from his Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group, received similar sentences. All were acquitted of murder and illegal possession of weapons. The verdict can be appealed against.

The charges relate to protests that erupted outside the presidential palace in December 2012 when Mr Morsi granted himself exceptional powers in order to push through a controversial constitution rejected by liberal and leftwing groups. A protest sit-in outside the palace was attacked by Morsi supporters brought in by the Brotherhood. Ten people, mostly from the Brotherhood, were killed in clashes lasting several hours, and some protesters were detained and tortured inside the palace, according to witnesses and human rights groups.

The ruling against the Islamist former president is the first of four trials in which he faces the death sentence on charges ranging from treason to escaping from prison during the 2011 revolution.

Hundreds of Brotherhood members have been condemned to death in trials denounced by human rights groups as unfair and politicised. The Brotherhood, which won elections held after the revolution, was outlawed as a terrorist organisation after the toppling of Mr Morsi in the 2013 coup, which had widespread popular support.

Mohamed Badie, the supreme guide of the Brotherhood, has already been sentenced to death, and he appeared in a court earlier this week in a separate trial dressed in the red suit of those on death row.

A statement from exiled leaders of the Brotherhood now based in Turkey described the proceedings in the Cairo court as "a politicised show trial".

Amr Darrag, a Brotherhood leader said: "The international community must speak with one voice in calling for an immediate repeal of the Morsi sentence. The United States and the United Kingdom should suspend military aid, which is only aiding and abetting Egypt's descent into brutal autocracy."

Mr Morsi rejected the trial from the outset, saying that he did not recognise the court. During the proceedings he and most of the defendants turned their backs on the courtroom when videos were played of the clashes outside the presidential palace.

On the eve on the verdict the Brotherhood called on supporters "to join nonstop revolutionary marches and demonstrations in all the streets of Egypt beginning in defence of their usurped will, for the restoration of legitimacy that the military junta has trampled, for solidarity and support for their legitimate president".

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