The Cairo Criminal Court upheld the death sentences of the six Muslim Brotherhood members and awarded life imprisonment to two others. Morsi and his secretary, Amin el-Sirafy, each received an additional 15-year sentence for leaking official documents.
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The journalists have been identified as Ibrahim Mohamed Hilal and Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan, both of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel.
Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt’s then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi. Ever since Morsi was overthrown, Qatar lost numerous financial benefits that connected the two countries.
Meanwhile, Human Rights group Amnesty International have condemned Saturday’s death sentences.
He has also been sentenced with a 20-year jail term for allegedly committing murder.
Morsi and his followers continue to insist that he remains the rightful president of Egypt and therefore the trials are bogus and illegitimate.
The Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters since Morsi’s ouster.
Morsi himself alongwith Badie and 100 other leaders were also sentenced to death in June past year for escaping from prison in 2011.
He called the charge of espionage involving Qatar “surprising and unacceptable”.
Before announcing the verdict in the espionage trial against former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday, the judge gave a long speech.
Al Jazeera condemned the verdicts, saying they were part of a “ruthless” campaign against freedom of expression, and called on the worldwide community to show solidarity with the journalists.
The network’s statement confirmed Hilal’s status, but only said that Mohammed was “identified by the prosecution as an Al Jazeera journalist”.
The others sentenced to death – political activist Ahmed Afifi, flight attendant Mohamed Kilani and academic Ahmed Ismail – as well as Morsi are in state custody.
But Morsi was acquitted of having supplied classified documents to Qatar, one of his main backers, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud told AFP.
The defendants can appeal the rulings before the court of cassation, and those tried in absentia can seek a retrial if they turn themselves in.
A view of the High Court of Justice in Cairo, Egypt, January 21, 2016.
Mohamed Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected head of state in 2012, after the uprising forced his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, to resign. In the same trial, six of Morsi’s co-defendants were given death penalties.
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The six convicted defendants include two documentary and media producers with Qatari Al Jazeera channel.
