The 24 March order of an Egyptian court sentencing some 529 members and supporters of Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoon for alleged killing of a single police officer has sent shockwaves across the world. This pronouncement of death sentence of this magnitude following hearing for only two days, which may well be termed as a mere mockery of justice, caused widespread outrage and global condemnation. Perhaps there is no finer example of a sham trial in the history not only of this Arab-African country but elsewhere in the world as well. The fact that of the 529 sentenced only 153 are in custody and the rest were tried in absentia and have the right to a retrial if they turn themselves in does not make any difference in its enormity.
Defence Counsel Mohamed Tousson’s charge that the judge rushed to sentencing on March 24 after being angered by a lawyer’s request for his recusal at the opening hearing makes the court order rather questionable. On the request for his recusal, the judge might have got angered but there was sufficient time for him to get his anger subside. Following the standard provisions of law in this situation, he should have withdrawn himself from the trial of this case; but instead he gave vent to his anger in spite of having one full weekly holiday (Sunday). This gives way to the apprehension that this judgement was preconceived and well-dictated by the powers-that-be. Tousson is right to assert that it is a ‘huge violation of defendants’ rights’. And to the Muslim Brotherhood, the aggrieved party, it was yet ‘another indication that the corrupt judiciary is being used by the coup commanders to suppress the Egyptian revolution and install a brutal regime’.
It is the irony of ironies, unfortunate and shocking, that the judiciary which is expected to deliver justice in each and every situation and which should always remain above political gimmicks is playing in the hands of the architects of military coup in Egypt.
Avaaz.org, the world’s largest and most powerful online activist network, is running an online petition [http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?bfrsBdb&v=37970] to Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam to ‘formally reject this ruling’. The number of signatories to this online petition from all over the world has reached about one million (978,099 to be exact at the time we rush to the press) in just two days. It shows the worldwide concern to avert this imminent tragedy. It would be in the fitness of things if the Grand Mufti pays heed to the sane voice of these conscientious persons of the world and save the lives of these hundreds of people, who are being made a prey to political vendetta.