CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced deposed President Mohammad Morsi to death Tuesday over a mass jailbreak during the country’s 2011 uprising and issued sweeping punishments against the leadership of Egypt’s oldest Islamist group.

The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammad Badie, and four other Brotherhood leaders were also handed the death penalty. More than 90 others, including influential preacher Youssef al-Qaradawi, were sentenced to death in absentia.

The Brotherhood described the rulings as “null and void” and called for a popular uprising Friday.

Morsi became Egypt’s first freely elected president after the downfall of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Judge Shaaban al-Shami said the grand mufti, Egypt’s top religious authority, had said in his opinion that the death sentence was permissible for the defendants who had been referred to him.

Wearing his blue prison suit, the bespectacled and bearded Morsi listened calmly as Shami read out the verdict in the case relating to the 2011 mass jailbreak, in which Morsi faced charges of killing, kidnapping and other offenses.

Shami had earlier given Morsi a 25-year sentence in a case relating to conspiring with foreign groups.

Morsi appeared unfazed, smiling, and waving to lawyers as other defendants chanted: “Down, down with military rule,” after the verdicts, which can be appealed, were read out at the court session in the Police Academy.

The rulings mark yet another setback for leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and increase the chances of its youth taking up arms against the authorities, breaking what the group says is a long tradition of nonviolence.

By contrast, Mubarak is slowly being cleared of charges in cases against him. He will face a second retrial over the killing of protesters in 2011 and has been sentenced to three years in jail over a corruption case.

Shami said elements of Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Sinai-based militants and Brotherhood leaders had all participated in storming the jails.

The White House said it was deeply troubled by what it called a politically motivated sentence, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply concerned and the EU called it a worrying development.

Sisi says the judiciary is independent and has made clear that the death sentences are all preliminary.

A senior Muslim Brotherhood member condemned the trial.

“This verdict is a nail in the coffin of democracy in Egypt,” Yahya Hamid, a former minister in Morsi’s Cabinet and head of international relations for the Brotherhood, told a news conference in Istanbul.

Western diplomats say Egyptian officials have acknowledged that executing Morsi would risk turning him into a martyr.

Morsi, Badie and 15 others were given 25-year jail sentences – for conspiring with Hamas, which rules Gaza. They included senior Brotherhood figures Essam al-Erian and Saad al-Katatni.

The court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leaders Khairat al-Shater, Mohammad al-Beltagy and Ahmed Abdelaty to death in the same case. A further 13 were sentenced to death in absentia.