Former President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, was given the death sentence on Saturday in a Cairo court for his role in a mass prison break in 2011, the BBC reported. Morsi's name will be passed on to the Grand Mufti in addition to over 100 other defendants, for confirmation of the death penalty on June 2.
All death sentences must first be sent to the Grand Mufti, the highest religious and legal authority in Egypt, which decides whether or not a death sentence should stand.
The sentence was the harshest judgement Morsi could have expected to receive in the case. He will, however, be able to appeal the court's decision, even after the Grand Mufti gives his approval.
The former Egyptian leader was found guilty in April this year on charges of violence and instigating violence and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for torturing protestors outside the presidential palace in December 2012. However, the court acquitted him of murder charges that could have seen him face the death sentence.
Mohamed Morsi was Egypt's first democratically elected president, but lasted only one year in power before being ousted by the military on 3 July 2013, according to Reuters
