Cairo: An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 12 other defendants to 20 years in jail for involvement in the arrests and torture of protesters during his rule.
But the court acquitted Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president of murder charges that could have seen him sentenced to death over the killings of a journalist and two protesters during clashes outside a presidential palace in 2012.
Morsi was toppled after mass street protests against his year-long rule.
The new authorities then launched a sweeping crackdown on his supporters in which more than 1,400 people have been killed and thousands jailed.
Hundreds have been sentenced to death in speedy mass trials, which the United Nations has called "unprecedented in recent history".
The authorities have also targeted secular and liberal activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising against longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Morsi's predecessor.
In November, a court dropped murder charges against Mubarak in his own trial over the deaths of hundreds of protesters in 2011.
Tuesday's verdict involves charges that Morsi and 14 other defendants, seven of whom are on the run, incited the killing of three protesters and the torture of several others during clashes outside the presidential palace on December 5, 2012.
The protesters were demonstrating against a Morsi decree that put him above judicial review when they clashed with his supporters.
