Mohamed Morsi in court
© AFP 2016/ STR
The Egyptian Court of Cassation overturned the life sentence and ordered a retrial of former President Mohamed Morsi's espionage case on Tuesday.

Morsi's life sentence and senior Muslim Brotherhood member Khairat el-Shater's death sentence were revoked in a live broadcast on Egyptian television. Retrial was ordered in the case of 20 additional Muslim Brotherhood members accused of 2005-2013 espionage in favor of the Islamist movement, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Morsi was sentenced to life on June 18, 2016, for passing army and state security secrets to Qatar in order to weaken the Egyptian state. The former president said he did not recognize the jurisdiction of the new authorities.

Last Tuesday, the court overturned and ordered a retrial of a 2011 prison break case that handed down a death sentence against Morsi. The Cairo Criminal Court issued the death sentence in June 2015.