Court considers Morsi, MB appeals on espionage case on Sunday

The Court of Cassation on Sunday will consider the appeals filed concerning verdicts on ousted president Mohamed Morsi and six other defendants of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group over charges of leaking classified documents on Egypt's national security and the Armed Forces to Qatar.

Earlier, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Morsi to 25 years in jail and 15 years rigorous imprisonment.

Another six defendants received death sentences after the Grand Mufti argued that the "crimes of the defendants are similar to that of treason" in which punishment should be death.

The defendants who were sentenced to death were Ahmed Abdo Afify, Mohamed Adel El Kelany, Ahmed Ismail, Alaa Omar and Ibrahim Helal, and Asmaa El Khateeb.

Morsi, who was ousted in July 2013, was charged with using his post to leak classified documents to Qatar with the help of secretaries and MB figures.

According to investigations, the leaked documents included classified information about the Egyptian Armed Forces, their locations and the nature of arming, as well as reports issued by the general and military intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency and the Administrative Control Authority.

Former Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem had attended a meeting in December in a Doha hotel (Sheraton) with a senior officer of the Qatari intelligence service, Alaa Seblan (a Jordanian correspondent working for Al Jazeera in Cairo) and head of Al Jazeera's news sector Ibrahim Helal, during which they reached an agreement to deliver the confidential documents in return for one and a half million dollars, the State Higher Security Prosecution had said.

The plan was to deliver the sensitive information to the Qatari intelligence to be aired on Al Jazeera screens with the aim to harm Egyptian national interests, the prosecution had added.

The international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood had instructed Morsi, his office director Ahmed Abdel Aati and special secretary Amin el Serfi, to send over the confidential files to the Qatari side, according to the prosecution.

Morsi's secretary Serfi kept the classified files at his daughter's residence, Karima, who handed them over to Asmaa el Khatib (working for MB-run Rasd online news network), who in turn delivered them to Ahmed Ali (a documentary producer) and the Jordanian Seblan.

They converted the files to a soft version with the help of Khaled Hamdi (production director at MB Misr 25 satellite channel) and Ahmed Ismail (lecturer at Misr University for Science & Technology).

The National Security Agency arrested Mohamed Adel, Ahmed Ali, Khaled Hamdi, Ahmed Ismail and Karima el Serfi, who all gave detailed accounts about the crimes, according to the prosecution.

Source: MENA