Cairo - Mohamed Morsi, who was sentenced to death on Saturday, was Egypt's first democratically elected president until the army overthrew him after a year of tumultuous rule sparked mass street protests.
An Egyptian court issued the sentence to the bearded 64-year-old and more than 100 co-defendants over jail breaks during the 2011 uprising that ousted his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
Morsi, sitting in a caged dock and wearing the blue uniform of convicts, raised his fists in defiance when the judge pronounced the verdict.
Nicknamed "The Spare Tyre" after he emerged as the Muslim Brotherhood's compromise candidate to run in Egypt's first democratic presidential election, Morsi nonetheless had a long history of activism with the Islamist movement.
Taking office in June 2012 after the overthrow of long-time ruler Mubarak, Morsi was president for a year that was marked by deep divisions in Egyptian society, unrest and a crippling economic crisis.
Since being ousted by then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in July 2013, the Islamist leader has been languishing in detention as he faces a series of trials.
In the first verdict against him in April, a Cairo court convicted Morsi of inciting violence against protesters during clashes in December 2012 when he was president, but acquitted him of charges of incitement to murder for which he could have faced the death penalty.
He was sentenced to 20 years in jail in that case.
AFP
