Former Egyptian President Morsi faces new politically motivated court charges

Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will be in court today to face jailbreak and border disruption charges.

Elected in 2012, Mr Morsi was deposed in a 2013 military coup led by current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Since December 2013, Morsi has languished in jail on what government critics describe as politically-motivated charges. Amongst other charges, state prosecutors accuse the Muslim Brotherhood leader of helping more than 20,000 prisoners escape detention and killing state security personnel. Indeed, Morsi has been serving a life sentence since 2016 for passing Egyptian state secrets to Qatar.

Observers are of the belief that this case is a tool for the el-Sisi administration to demonstrate that it will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat of the Morsi-led Muslim Brotherhood, which it labels a terrorist group.

Egypt is not willing to compromise on its national security; these moves are a nod to the policies of its allies in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who have maintained a diplomatic stand-off with Qatar for its continued support of the organization.

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