CAIRO: An Egyptian appeals court Tuesday quashed one of two life sentences handed down to Mohamed Morsi since his 2013 overthrow, in the Islamist ex-president’s second appeals victory in a week.
The Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appeals court, issued the verdict, Morsi’s lawyer and a judicial official told AFP.
The court ordered a retrial in the case, Morsi’s lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud told AFP, adding: “The verdict was full of legal flaws.”
The ruling quashed sentences against 22 others, including death sentences against the Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy head Khairat al-Shater and other senior officials from the now banned group.
A court had sentenced Morsi to life in June 2015 on charges of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The decision was the latest legal victory for the 65-year-old, who has been convicted and sentenced in all cases against him since being removed from office in 2013.
“Most of the trials in which the former president has been convicted are not built on sufficient evidence: the prosecutor relies on security services reports,” University of Cairo political sciences Professor Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed said.
Morsi was Egypt’s first freely elected leader, taking power after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak.
But his year in office proved deeply divisive and he was overthrown by then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.
A crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood followed, with the movement blacklisted, hundreds of its supporters killed and thousands jailed or sentenced to death.
