Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the Egyptian judiciary for upholding the controversial death sentence against ousted President Mohamed Morsi, saying the verdict was politically motivated.

“Two cases that resulted in former President Mohamed Morsi and 114 others receiving death sentences on June 16, 2015, were compromised by due process violations and appear to have been politically motivated,” said a statement by HRW on Tuesday.

A court in Cairo confirmed a death sentence against Morsi and dozens more on Tuesday over charges of escaping from the Wadi el-Natrun Prison, located north of Cairo, in January 2011, during the uprising that led to the ouster of the country’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The HRW said, however, that it found almost nothing in support of the charges directed at Morsi and his co-defendants, saying the prosecution was only built on testimonies from government forces.

“A … review of prosecution case file summaries found little evidence other than the testimony of military and police officers to support the convictions of Morsi and 130 others for a 2011 prison break, and of Morsi and 35 others for conspiring with foreign powers against the state."

Earlier on Tuesday, the same court sentenced Morsi and his followers to life in prison on charges related to involvement in espionage activities.

Officials in the New York-based rights advocacy group also reacted to the rulings, saying Egyptian courts disregard due process in the trial of the regime’s opponents.

“These prosecutions show that Egyptian courts are ready to sentence the government’s opponents to death with barely any regard for due process,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East and North Africa director, adding that the current trials in the Arab country follow a flawed model of mass prosecution previously used against the opponents of the military-backed regime in Egypt.

Morsi was deposed in July 2013 in a military coup led by the then army chief and the current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The judicial authorities have since executed seven people for committing violent crimes against the government while more than 600 people, most of them members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, have been sentenced to death over similar charges.

Iran slams rulings

Meanwhile, Iran has also condemned the harsh rulings, saying it is concerned about the fate of the former president who was elected in “free and competitive elections.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran… believes that approaches based on elimination and suppression and resorting to violence and terror only lead to the weakening of Egypt and hamper the revival of the country’s historic role and position in the region and the world,” said Marzieh Afkham, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Wednesday.

MS/HMV/GHN