ANKARA
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan has denounced an Egyptian court’s verdict seeking the death penalty for former Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi, calling it an "heinous" act.
“Handing out a death sentence to an elected president is as heinous as plotting a coup,” Akdogan said Saturday during an opening ceremony of an election coordination center in the capital Ankara.
An Egyptian court on Saturday referred 122 out of 166 defendants, including Morsi to the country’s grand mufti to consider possible death sentences against them on charges of jailbreak and espionage charges.
Morsi's family did not attend Saturday's trial session, citing "their rejection of the legitimacy of the trial."
Egyptian authorities accuse Morsi and 130 others of taking part in a mass jailbreak during Egypt's January 2011 uprising that ousted autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
