Son says Egypt's Mursi plans comeback despite jail sentence

By Sylvia Westall CAIRO (Reuters) - Mohamed Mursi's reversal of fortune from Egypt's first freely-elected president to a prisoner sentenced to 20 years in jail on Tuesday will not break his will to return to power, his son said. Those aspirations may seem unrealistic two years after the army toppled Mursi and crushed his Muslim Brotherhood. Yet they highlight the resolve of the Middle East's oldest Islamist group, which has recovered after past crackdowns during a decades-old struggle against the Egyptian state. Speaking to Reuters ahead of the verdict, read out as Mursi stood in a courtroom cage, Osama Mursi also chose what seems like the only option available to the Brotherhood these days -- putting on a brave face. Osama still calls his father president Mursi, even though the Egyptian state now has a tighter grip than ever on the Brotherhood in a decades-long struggle. "He knows very well that he is a man with a mission. The mission is the path of democracy that we gained in the 25 January revolution," said Osama, referring to the start of protests in 2011 against Hosni Mubarak's 30 years in power. "We will get it back. President Mursi knows this well ... Do not worry about Mohamed Mursi's spirits." Mursi, who can appeal against the verdict, was charged with inciting the killing of protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012, when he was still in power. Analysts say it is unlikely Egypt will put senior Islamists to death but expect they will remain in jail as the lengthy process runs through the courts. There is no reason for the authorities to speed up the proceedings because there is very little agitation in the streets from Brotherhood members, who now stage small, quick protests to avoid arrest. After toppling Mursi in mid-2013, then army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi unleashed a fierce crackdown on the Brotherhood. Police shot dead hundreds in the streets and arrested thousands more. EXISTENTIAL THREAT Sisi now describes the outlawed Brotherhood as a terrorist group that poses an existential threat to the Arab world, the West and most importantly, Islam itself. Mursi, who has denied allegations that he abused power and mismanaged the economy during his one year in power, has lost touch with Brotherhood youth, an official from the movement told Reuters. Still, he remains determined to reverse what he calls a military coup orchestrated by Sisi, who went on to become president and win the backing of Western powers despite widespread accusations of human rights abuses. "He is quite well, physically and spiritually," Osama, 31, told Reuters by telephone on Monday. Osama, a lawyer who is part of the defense team, said he had met his father in court more than seven times since his detention, speaking to him in a small heavily guarded room. None of his family members have visited him in prison, where he is in isolation. He met Mursi around two months ago and said his father has remained "strong and confident" throughout. Opponents of Egypt's government say the trial is part of a campaign to revive Mubarak's police state. The government has accused the Brotherhood of stirring up an Islamist insurgency after Mursi's removal. The courts have sentenced hundreds to death. It is the second time Egypt has put an ousted president on trial since 2011, and it is taking place in the same venue - a police academy hall - where Mubarak faced a retrial over his conviction for complicity in killing protesters. Egypt's high court in January overturned the only remaining conviction against Mubarak. Osama, one of Mursi's five children, said the case against his father was politically motivated and aimed at erasing his tenure from history. "(It is) one of the actions done by the ruling regime to constitutionalize or legitimize it," he said. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that all trials in Egypt were carried out in independent courts and that defendants have the right to appeal. "There is a due process, there is a complete independence of judiciary and no single person including the president himself can interfere in the work of the judiciary," spokesman Badr Abdelatty said. (Editing by Michael Georgy and Giles Elgood)