Egypt's Morsi sentenced to three years for insulting the judiciary

Mr Morsi has spent several years behind bars (file pic)

Egypt's former president has been sentenced to three years in prison for insulting the judiciary.

Mohammed Morsi already holds other jail terms including a life sentence.

He is awaiting a retrial on a separate charge of conspiring to commit terrorist acts, for which he was previously sentenced to death. The death sentence was lifted on appeal.

Mr Morsi was overthrown by the military in 2013 and has been detained since. He is currently in a high-security prison.

He has also been fined a million Egyptian pounds (£42,000; $56,000) relating to a speech given in 2013.

Also sentenced on Saturday were 17 co-defendants, including fines for political blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah and broadcaster Tawfiq Okasha.

Mr Morsi has previously rejected the authority of the courts, and in his first trial shouted from the dock that he was being "forcibly detained".

Since then he has been forced to sit in soundproof glass cages in courtrooms, which officials say are designed to prevent him disrupting proceedings.

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He was overthrown by the military following mass protests a year after he took office as the country's first democratically elected leader.

The authorities subsequently launched a crackdown on supporters of Mr Morsi and the Islamist movement to which he belongs, the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.