Ex-Egyptian President, Morsi jailed 20 years

An Egyptian court has sentenced former President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in jail for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during his rule. It is the first verdict he has received since his ousting and is one of several trials he faces. 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. Morsi and 14 other 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. Morsi's legal team have said they will appeal.

Morsi's trials 

This verdict is just one of several Mr Morsi faces. They include: Colluding with foreign militants in a plot to free Islamists in mass prison breaks during the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak Espionage and conspiring to commit terrorist acts in Egypt with the Palestinian movement Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards Endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar via the Doha-based Al Jazeera network

Hearing the verdict, 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. A senior Brotherhood figure, Amr Darrag, called the ruling a "travesty of justice". "They want to pass a life sentence for democracy in Egypt," he said. Ramy Ghanem, a lawyer for one of those injured in the clashes, expressed surprise that Morsi escaped the more serious charge, but told the AFP news agency the sentences are "not bad".

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