Egypt: Osama Morsi jailed for 3 years

Osama Mohamed Morsi, the son of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is seen during the trial over the breaking up the Rabaa Al-Adawiyyah protests, at the police academy in Cairo, Egypt on December 10, 2016 [Moustafa Elshemy / Anadolu Agency]

A court in Egypt has sentenced ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s son to three years in prison over accusations that he allegedly possessed weapons at the time of his arrest in 2016.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud told journalists that the ruling against Osama Morsi is not final and that he will appeal it.

No evidence was submitted to support the charges except for the alleged eyewitness accounts of the police offers who arrested him at his home 10 months ago, Abdel-Maqsoud added.

Osama was arrested on 16 December on charges of violence related to the dispersal of the Rabaa protest sit-in, which was set up in 2013 after Morsi was ousted in a military coup by current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Read: Morsi’s son being beaten in prison

After Osama’s arrest, prosecutors referred him to trial on the charge of possessing weapons.

Activists in the Muslim Brotherhood group believe that the ruling is politically motivated and that the lawsuit comes in the context of a wave of politicised rulings against the former president’s family as well as his supporters.

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