Egypt court confirms Morsi death sentence over jailbreak

An Egyptian court sentenced deposed President Mohamed Mursi to death on June 16 on charges of killing, kidnapping and other offences during a 2011 mass jail break. 

The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and four other Brotherhood leaders were also handed the death penalty. More than 80 others were sentenced to death in absentia. 

Earlier on June 16, the court sentenced Mursi to life in prison in a separate case related to conspiring with foreign groups. 

The Islamist became Egypt's first democratically elected president after the downfall of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 but was himself overthrown by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. 

The court last month convicted Mursi and his fellow defendants of killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking police facilities and breaking out of jail during the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. 

The death sentence request had drawn criticism from the United States, other Western governments and human rights groups. 

After June 16 sentencing, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member said the trial had "fallen below all international standards". 

"This verdict is a nail in the coffin of democracy in Egypt," Yahya Hamid, a former minister in Mursi's cabinet and head of international relations for the Brotherhood, told a news conference in Istanbul. 

Mursi, Badie and 15 others were also given life sentences -- which under Egyptian law, means serving 25 years -- for conspiring with the Palestinian group Hamas, which rules Gaza. They included senior Brotherhood figures Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni. 

The court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leaders Khairat el-Shater, Mohamed el-Beltagy and Ahmed Abdelaty to death...