Backlash threatened over Morsi's sentence

Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's sentence is provisional until the Government's most senior Islamic cleric gives his opinion. Photo / AP

Islamists warn of revenge after Morsi death sentence.

Egyptian Islamists have warned that the world should brace itself for a backlash after the country's first freely elected President, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, was given a provisional death sentence nearly two years after he was overthrown by the army following mass protests against his rule.

Morsi was among over 100 men sentenced to death at the weekend for allegedly escaping prison during the 2011 uprising that toppled his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. Morsi and his colleagues were convicted of conspiring with Hamas, the Brotherhood's Palestinian offshoot, which judges decided had helped the prisoners leave jail in January 2011.

The sentence is provisional until the Government's most senior Islamic cleric gives his opinion. A final decision is due on June 2.

Even if the execution is upheld, analysts doubt that the Egyptian regime will follow through with such a provocative act. In a separate espionage case, Morsi was sentenced to life in prison and, in a third case last month, to 20 years for incitement to violence.

The death sentence is the latest salvo in a 23-month crackdown on Islamist and leftist groups that has seen thousands killed and tens of thousands imprisoned.

Morsi's supporters presented it as vengeance on the part of the regime. One of those sentenced to death in absentia, the Brotherhood official Ahmed Ramy Elhofy, warned the West to expect a backlash. "All the world will pay for this death sentence, will pay for their silence about the sentence, and for betraying the principles of freedom and justice."

- Observer