Mursi sentenced to death by Egyptian court

An Egyptian court sentenced deposed President Mohamed Mursi to death on Tuesday 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 Tuesday, 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.

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 in the same case. Death sentences were also handed to 13 other defendants in absentia. The verdicts can be appealed.

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