CAIRO - An Egyptian court has upheld a 20-year jail sentence passed against ousted President Mohammed Morsi for his role in the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.

Saturday's ruling by the Court of Cessation is the first final verdict against Morsi since his ouster and subsequent detention in July 2013. He has been convicted and sentenced to death and life imprisonment in three separate cases, but these rulings are under appeal.

Freely elected in June 2012, the Islamist Morsi was ousted a year later by the military, then led by his successor, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who was elected with a landslide in June 2014.