Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, wearing a red uniform, gestures from behind the bars during his trial in Cairo at the police academy in Cairo on April 23, 2016. An Egyptian court postponed its verdict and sentence in the trial of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who is charged with spying for Qatar. The head judge of the criminal court said the verdict was postponed to Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, wearing a red uniform, gestures from behind the bars during his trial in Cairo at the police academy in Cairo on April 23, 2016. An Egyptian court postponed its verdict and sentence in the trial of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who is charged with spying for Qatar.
The head judge of the criminal court said the verdict was postponed to "May 7 to continue consultations," in brief remarks aired on television. / AFP / KHALED DESOUKI

CAIRO: An Egyptian court postponed yesterday its verdict and sentence in the trial of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who is charged with spying for Qatar. The head judge of the criminal court said the verdict was postponed to "May 7 to continue consultations," in brief remarks aired on television. If he is convicted it would be Morsi's fourth sentence. He has already been sentenced in three separate trials to death, a life term and 20 years in prison.

Qatar was one of Morsi's main backers and Cairo accuses Doha of supporting the Islamist's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement. Morsi-the country's first freely elected president-had barely finished his first year in office when the military overthrew and detained him in July 2013. At the time it announced he would eventually be tried on vague charges of espionage and for a mass prison break during the 18-day revolt that overthrew his predecessor Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The prosecution charges that Morsi and 10 co-defendants leaked "classified documents" to Qatar.

The documents allegedly contained secrets on "national security," and were allegedly traded with Qatari intelligence for a million dollars. A court in 2015 sentenced Morsi to death over the prison breaks and attacks on police stations during the 2011 uprising. He had been detained along with other Muslim Brotherhood leaders days after the protests started on January 25, 2011. Thousands escaped from prisons after protesters attacked and torched police stations across the country. Morsi was also sentenced to life in prison for "espionage" on behalf of Iran and other countries, as well as militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Another court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for clashes that erupted outside his presidential palace in December 2012 between his supporters and opponents, which killed up to 10 people. The clashes, after Morsi issued a decree placing his decisions above judicial review, set off spiraling protests that prompted the military to overthrow him. Since then, a military and police crackdown on his supporters has killed more than 1,000 protesters and imprisoned thousands of Islamists. Hundreds, including other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, have been sentenced to death, although many have appealed and been granted new trials. The Brotherhood has been blacklisted as a terrorist group.

Anti-government protest

Meanwhile, Egypt has arrested dozens of activists ahead of an anti-government demonstration planned for tomorrow, a group of lawyers said. The group published a list of 59 people they say were detained since Thursday, arrested at cafes and at their homes in Cairo, adding "the arrests continue". Opposition groups-including the April 6 movement, which spearheaded the popular uprising that ousted former leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011 - have called for the rally mainly in protest at the government's deal to hand two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia.

The controversial move by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has provoked outrage among many Egyptians who accuse him of "selling" the islands in the Straits of Tiran in return for Saudi investment. On April 15, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in central Cairo in the biggest protest in two years demanding "the fall of the regime", with police firing tear gas to disperse them.

That protest was called for by both secular and Islamic activists, and while originally about the islands became a wider demonstration against the Sisi government. Demonstrations not approved by the police have been banned. Among those arrested in the past 24 hours was prominent rights activist and lawyer Haitham Mohamedin, according to fellow lawyer Rajia Amrane. Sisi, who won elections in 2014, is reviled by Islamists and secular dissidents, but many Egyptians say they need a strong leader to revive the country's economy after years of unrest. He had enjoyed unwavering loyalty in much of the Egyptian media since he took office, but criticism of the president and his police force has grown in recent months.- Agencies