Morsi verdict in Egypt presidential palace clash case appealed

The lawyer of Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi today challenged the 20-year prison term handed down to him for inciting violence against protesters who had staged a sit-in near presidential palace in 2012.
Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, a Muslim Brotherhood member and one of the lawyers representing Morsi, said he proposed the appeal at the Court of Cassation to meet deadline as they were not able to meet the 63-year-old former president to know of his approval.
In April, a Cairo court sentenced Morsi to 20 years in prison for inciting violence against protesters who had staged a sit-in outside Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012, when Morsi was still in power.

Besides Morsi, the criminal court sentenced 12 other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including senior figures Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian, to 20 years in jail.
The charges were levelled against them after demonstrators protesting in front of the palace were killed. They were protesting to object to a constitutional decree issued by the Islamist president.
All defendants were acquitted of murder charges.

The former president has repeatedly said that he does not recongnise the trials he faces.
If the court accepts the appeal, the sentence will be dropped and a retrial will be in ordered.
On Tuesday, Morsi was sentenced to death and handed a life imprisonment sentence after he was convicted in two cases.

Morsi was sentenced to death for escaping the Wadi al-Natroun prison during the January 2011 uprising. He was sentenced to life in prison for an espionage case.
Morsi, who became Egypt's president in June 2012 after the first democratic elections in the country, was ousted by the military following mass protests against his rule, after a year in power.
Since his removal in July 2013, Morsi has faced multiple charges in five trials.