Egypt’s top religious leader has dismissed death sentences passed on the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and other members of the movement. On 7 August, Grand Mufti Shawki Allam stated that the case against Mohamed Badie and the other defendants lacks necessary evidence to incriminate the accused. The Mufti also noted in his report to the criminal court that the only evidence used in the case against the defendants was statements of a national security officer, which were not backed up by any other sources.
On 19 June, an Egyptian court sentenced Badie and 13 other Brotherhood members to death. It referred the verdict to the Mufti, the state’s highest Islamic legal official, whose opinion must be sought before any execution can take place. The court therefore adjourned a final verdict in the case until August 30.
EGYPT DISSOLVES FJP
An Egyptian court on 9 August issued a ruling dissolving the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of Muslim Brotherhood, striking another blow in the campaign to crush Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement. The ruling bans the Brotherhood from formal participation in electoral politics.
“This is a politicised ruling,” FJP lawyer Mahmoud Abul-Einen was reported as saying. “It violates the law because this party was founded in line with the Constitution,” he added. The party’s legal committee, meanwhile, described the verdict as part of a plan by what it described as the “counterrevolution” to stifle the January 25 revolution, which ousted the ex-president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
HRW SAYS EGYPT GAGGING DISSENT
Human Rights Watch on 11 August accused Egypt’s government of trying to silence all criticism, after two of its top staff members were held at Cairo airport for 12 hours and then denied entry to the country for “security reasons.” Executive Director Kenneth Roth and Middle East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson had flown to Cairo to launch a report on the mass killings of protesters by security forces one year ago, weeks after the army removed elected President Mohamed Morsi from power. The lengthy report comes after a year-long investigation, including interviews with more than 200 witnesses to the killings in July and August of 2013. It details the conduct of government security forces in confronting protesters demanding Morsi’s reinstatement.
ERDOGAN’S PRESIDENTIAL WIN STARTS RACE FOR NEW TURKISH GOVT
Turkey’s ruling party on 11 August began deliberations on the shape of the next government after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan secured his place in history by winning the nation’s first direct presidential election. Erdogan’s victory in Sunday’s vote takes him a step closer to the executive presidency he has long coveted for Turkey. In the coming weeks, Erdogan will for the last time chair meetings of the ruling AK Party he founded and oversee the selection of a new party leader, likely to be a future prime minister. He will be inaugurated on 28 August.