Egypt court slaps ex-president’s son with jail term

By Hussein al-Qabbani

CAIRO (AA) - An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced the son of Egypt's first democratically elected president -- who was ousted in a 2013 military coup -- to three years in jail for possessing an illegal weapon, according to a local judicial source.

Osama Morsi, son of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, was also ordered to pay a modest fine, the source, preferring anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, told Anadolu Agency.

The sentence handed down against the younger Morsi, who has consistently denied the charge against him, can still be appealed before the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appellate court, according to the same source.

Osama, along with 738 others, is also a defendant in a separate case relating to the violent dispersal by Egyptian security forces of a Cairo sit-in in 2013.

Last December, Osama was arrested and charged with possessing an illegal weapon. Shortly afterward, he was taken to Cairo’s notorious Al-Aqrab prison to await trial.

Abdullah Morsi, Osama’s younger brother, told Anadolu Agency that he and his family rejected the jail sentence, describing the charges against Osama as “fabricated”.

“History will remember us and our resistance,” he said. “Like many Egyptians, we have suffered many hardships in the years since the coup.”

Egypt has been roiled by chaos since mid-2013, when the army overthrew Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt’s post-coup authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on dissent, killing hundreds of Morsi’s supporters and throwing tens of thousands behind bars.