Court rejects appeal by Morsi, 18 others in “contempt of court” case

CAIRO – 15 October 2018: The Court of Cassation rejected on Monday the appeal made by ousted President Mohamed Morsi and 19 others against a three-year sentence received for the “contempt of court” case.

In December 2017, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Saad el-Katatni and 18 others to three years in prison in the case “insulting judiciary” by making statements on TV, social media and radio that incite hatred against the court.

The case involves 24 defendants, five of whom were fined LE 30,000.

The investigations stated that Morsi, during his televised presidential speech on June 23, 2013, insulted Judge Ali Mohamed Ahmed al-Nemr, describing him as “an impartial judge.” Nemr was the presiding judge of a Cairo criminal court which acquitted Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, sons of former President Hosni Mubarak, along with former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, over charges of corruption in December 2013. He was also one of the supervisory judges during the 2005 Presidential elections.

Several Muslim Brotherhood defendants have received sentences ranging from 24 hours to three years in prison, over charges for court contempt.

The most recent penalty of contempt for the court was imposed on Mohammed El-Beltagy, who was sentenced for a year in prison while the court considered his charges in the case dubbed “breaking into the eastern border.”

The court usually uses Article 244 of the criminal law measures to file a suit against El-Beltagy, stipulating that if any violations or discourteousness are committed in the court hearing, the court shall immediately file a lawsuit against the defendant and sentence it after hearing his lawyer and the prosecution.

Under the law, the defendant charged of court contempt shall face sentences ranging from 24 hours in prison to three years, and the head of court uses Article 184 of the Penal Code to identify which penalty to impose on the defendants if any actions were committed to insult or undermine the court, Parliament, army and any other authorities. Under Article 184, he shall be punished with prison time or fines.