A court in Egypt today sentenced ousted Islamic president Mohamed Morsi and more than 100 defendants to death for escaping from prison during the 2011 uprising.
Morsi, who is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for inciting violence against protesters, was in a separate part of the courtroom when the verdict was read.
According to the custom for the strictest punishment in Egypt, the judge sent the verdict to the chief mufti, who should present his non-binding opinion, AP said.
In the first trial today, Morsi and 130 others, including dozens of members of the Palestinian movement Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, were accused of escaping from prison and attacking police during the 2011 uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak.
There are 27 defendants in prison, including Morsi, while the others, including Qatari religious leader Yusuf al-Karavdi, were tried in absentia.
In another trial, Morsi and 35 defendants, including Muslim Brotherhood leaders, were accused of conspiring with Hamas and Iran to destabilize Egypt.
The defendants are accused of supplying Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard with intelligence reports aimed at destabilizing the country.
The prosecution alleges that they carried out espionage activity on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas from 2005 to August 2013 "with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks in the country in order to spread chaos and overthrow the regime".
These charges are also punishable by death.
Morsi faces two more trials - for insulting the judiciary and spying for Qatar, which has been a major supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was ousted by a military coup led by current president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in July 2013, following mass street demonstrations demanding his resignation after just a year in power.
After Morsi was ousted, the new government began a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood movement, in which hundreds of people were killed and thousands imprisoned.
Sisi has pledged to root out the Muslim Brotherhood, an 87-year-old movement that won elections between the fall of Mubarak and Morsi's May 2012 presidential victory.
Egyptian authorities declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in December 2013, and mere verbal support for the movement is threatened with severe prison sentences.
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