Cairo - An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison for abuses against protesters but acquitted the Islamist leader of charges carrying a possible death penalty.
Morsi was convicted of ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators involved in clashes in 2012 when he was president, in a verdict Amnesty International denounced as a "travesty of justice".
Fourteen others were convicted of the same charges, with most also sentenced by the Cairo court to 20 years in jail.
It acquitted the defendants of inciting murder in connection with the deaths of a journalist and two protesters during the December 5, 2012 clashes outside the presidential palace in Cairo.
Morsi, dressed in a white prison uniform and standing in a soundproof cage, raised his fists when the verdict was announced, an AFP correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Defence lawyers said they would appeal the convictions while rights groups voiced alarm at the ruling, the first in a series of trials Morsi is facing.
"This verdict shatters any remaining illusion of independence and impartiality in Egypt's criminal justice system," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy Middle East and North Africa director.
AFP
