Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's death sentence confirmed

An Egyptian court has confirmed former President Mohamed Morsi's death sentence in a case related to the 2011 Wadi el-Natrun prison break that helped bring him to power. Senior Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi was also sentenced to death, along with 80 others in absentia.

President Morsi was handed a death sentence in May. An Islamist and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, he had previously been sentenced to life in prison on charges of spying for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, and to 20 years in prison for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters in December 2012.

Morsi's conviction for the mass prison break, in which he and thousands of others escaped detention by former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, has been criticized as farcical by human rights activists. The nation's first democratically elected president, Morsi was ousted by the Egyptian army in a 2013 coup d'etat; authorities have since banned the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.

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Morsi is expected to appeal his sentence.