Mohamed Morsi sentenced to 20 years in jail

Former Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during his rule.

It is the first verdict Mohamed Morsi has received since his ousting and is one of several trials he faces.

Mohamed Morsi was deposed by the army in July 2013 following mass street protests against his rule.

Since then, the authorities have banned his Muslim Brotherhood movement and arrested thousands of his supporters.

Mohamed Morsi and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood figures escaped a more serious charge of inciting the killing of protesters, which could have carried the death sentence.

Most of the other defendants were also given 20-year prison sentences.

The group stood accused of inciting supporters to kill a journalist and opposition protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in late 2012.

As crowds grew outside the palace, Mohamed Morsi ordered the police to disperse them.

They refused, so the Muslim Brotherhood brought in their own supporters. Eleven people died in the ensuing clashes, mostly from the Brotherhood.

Hearing the verdict, Mohamed Morsi and the other defendants gave a four-fingered salute, a symbol of the deadly clearance of Brotherhood supporters at the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in 2013, AP reports.

Mohamed Morsi himself has rejected the authority of the courts, shouting during his first trial that he was the victim of a military coup.

On April 20, a court sentenced 22 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death for an attack on a police station in Cairo, part of an ongoing crackdown against the Islamist movement.