16 Brotherhood leaders face possible death penalty in spy trial

CAIRO 

An Egyptian court on Saturday referred 16 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to the grand mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, to consider death penalty against them on espionage charges.

The court set June 2 to deliver its final verdict in the case, in which ousted President Mohamed Morsi and 34 co-defendants are standing trial.

The opinion of the mufti is not binding to the court, but Egyptian law makes it necessary for judges to seek a religious point of view on any death sentence.

Egyptian authorities accuse Morsi and co-defendants of "conspiring" with Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah to carry out "terrorist acts" inside Egypt.

Last month, Morsi and 12 co-defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison each for mobilizing supporters in order to "intimidate, detain and torture" dozens of anti-Morsi protesters during clashes outside eastern Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.

Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was ousted by the military in July 2013 – after only one year in office – following mass protests against his rule.

He currently faces multiple criminal trials on charges that include espionage and "insulting the judiciary."

Morsi and his co-defendants insist the charges against them are politically motivated.

Since Morsi's ouster, the Egyptian authorities have launched a relentless crackdown on dissent that has largely targeted Morsi's Islamist supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.