Former Egypt president Morsi seeks to overturn death sentence

A member of former Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi’s legal team, Mohammad al-Damaty, has said the defence team is preparing to appeal in the Court of Cassation against the death sentences handed down to Morsi and a number of leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the cases known in the media as the “Qatar espionage and Wadi al-Natrun prison break trials”.

The lawyer told al-Araby al-Jadeed, “The appeal is not going to be against Morsi’s charges rather against the court’s jurisdiction. Former presidential candidate Dr. Mohammad Salim al-Awa is in the process of drafting the appeal, which he will submit to the court as Morsi’s principal lawyer.”

The military and the police are the ones who opened up the prisons at the beginning of the revolution to spread chaos and they are preparing to do it again - Gamal Heshmat

Damaty said Morsi still firmly believes he is Egypt’s legitimate president and cannot be tried by the court.

Damaty said the appeal will be “conclusive” because if the Court of Cassation accepts and repeals the verdict it would mean official recognition that Morsi is the legitimate president of Egypt.

Regarding concerns the government will execute Morsi soon, Damaty said, “The decisive point in this matter will be amending Criminal Procedure Code. If the law is amended as the media has reported, allowing the sentences to be promptly carried out and not obliging the court hear all witnesses then it would indicate the current regime is intending to execute Morsi and the other Brotherhood leaders.”

“Until now, the law has been declined by many parties at the forefront of which is the Supreme Judicial Council, however there are groups within the judiciary that are trying to expedite its passing,” Damaty added.

Former Speaker of Parliament and Brotherhood leader Gamal Heshmat said, “The military and the police are the ones who opened up the prisons at the beginning of the revolution to spread chaos and they are preparing to do it again but [this time] to kill detainees, in short they are responsible for protecting [Morsi and the other Brotherhood prisoners].”

Cairo Criminal Court will resume on Tuesday the trial of Morsi and 10 others in the “Qatar espionage” trial, the session is scheduled to hear the first witnesses in the case.

In the last session on 11 July, the court examined evidence seized by police from the defendants’ smartphones and computers allegedly used to “spy and leak state secrets outside the country”.