Morsi death sentence quashed by Egypt court

An Egyptian appeals court has struck down a death sentence handed down to ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in one of four trials since his 2013 overthrow.

In a session that lasted just a few minutes, the court on Tuesday ordered that Morsi will be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising, The New Arab's Cairo correspondent Tarek Negmeddin reported.

The ruling means that Morsi will be given a new trial, alongside five other leaders of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, including its supreme guide Mohammed Badie, whose death sentences in the same case were also quashed.

The court also struck down life sentences passed in the same case against 21 Brotherhood members, however nearly 100 others who were tried in absentia are unaffected by the appeals ruling.

Last month, the same appeals court upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Morsi in April in a separate trial on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.

Morsi has also been sentenced to life in prison in two other trials: in one for allegedly spying for Iran, Hizballah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

The other was for allegedly stealing top-secret docoments and handing them over to Qatar.

Egypt's first freely elected civilian president, Morsi came to power after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.

He was toppled in 2013 by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests against his rule.

The Brotherhood has since been blacklisted and subject to a harsh crackdown that has killed and imprisoned thousands of Morsi's supporters.

Agencies contributed to this report.