Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, listens to his verdict inside a cage for defendants in a makeshift courtroom at the national police academy, in an eastern suburb of Cairo on June 18, 2016. (Photo by AP)
An appeals court in Egypt has upheld a 20-year prison sentence for former president Mohamed Morsi, the first final verdict against the ousted leader.
On Saturday, the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appeals court, rejected Morsi’s appeal, rendering the sentence final.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, received the prison sentence in April 2015 on charges of inciting violence near the presidential palace in Cairo during the 2012 protests.
The Court of Cassation also upheld sentences against eight of Morsi’s codefendants, including seven who received the same prison term and one who was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Morsi has already been sentenced in three separate trials to death and a life term on charge of spying for Qatar.
In May 2015, Morsi and 105 others were sentenced to death for a mass prison break in 2011, during the country’s popular uprising that led to the overthrow of long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak.
The Egyptian government has been cracking down on opposition since Morsi was ousted in a military coup led by former army chief and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.
Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has led to the deaths of over 1,400 people and the arrest of 22,000 others, including some 200 people who have been sentenced to death in mass trials.