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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Morsi receives 20-year prison sentence

From Wire Reports

CAIRO – Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi escaped a death sentence Tuesday when a criminal court handed him a 20-year prison term in connection with a deadly protest that took place during his tenure in office.

It was the first in an expected series of verdicts and sentencings of the ex-leader, an Islamist who was removed in a coup led by the then-Defense Minister and now President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Morsi, jailed since being deposed amid huge protests against his rule in the summer of 2013, still faces several other capital cases.

Morsi, the country’s first freely elected leader, insists he is still Egypt’s legitimate president and has refused to recognize the court’s authority.

Couple sentenced in murder of mother

BALI, Indonesia – An Indonesian court found an American couple guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced them to prison on Tuesday in the killing of the woman’s mother on the resort island of Bali.

The Denpasar District Court sentenced Tommy Schaefer to 18 years in prison and Heather Mack to 10 years for intentionally killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack while vacationing last August. The badly battered body was found stuffed in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.

The three-judge panel said it decided to be lenient toward Mack, 19, because she recently gave birth.

The court ruled that Schaefer, 21, was guilty of battering von Wiese-Mack to death in a hotel room at the resort, and that his girlfriend Mack had helped with the Aug. 12 killing.

Schaefer and Mack, both from Chicago, were tried separately in the same court with the same judges and prosecutors.

They were arrested a day after the body of von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found in the suitcase in the taxi’s trunk.

They have a week to decide whether to appeal the verdict.