Egypt’s Morsi faces more years in prison after another sentence

An Egyptian court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to three years in prison along with 19 other defendants on Saturday for "insulting the judiciary," his lawyer said.

The other defendants include former members of parliament, activists and three journalists. 

Morsi had already been sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison in two other trials after the military overthrew his elected government in 2013.

The former president, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood party, is serving a life sentence — 25 years — over accusations of spying for Qatar. 

Earlier, he was handed a 20-year sentence on charges arising from the killing of protesters in December 2012.

In the latest case, Morsi was ordered to pay $56,270 to the head of the judges' syndicate and another judge, while other defendants, including jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, were also fined.

Morsi's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsud said that he would appeal the verdict.

Thousands of members of Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested in brutal crackdown since the military ousted the party's government. 

The former army chief Abdel Fattah al Sisi, who now heads the country as its president and led the coup against Morsi, has used torture and enforced disappearances on political opponents, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). 

Prominent rights activist Alaa is serving a five-year sentence for taking part in a protest in 2013. 

An outspoken blogger and an icon of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, he has been in and out of prison in the years since Mubarak's ouster.