A senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood said the sentences handed down on 28 April, 2014 by Minya Criminal Court (in central Egypt) against 1211 supporters of President Morsi signal the fall of the so-called ‘independence of judiciary’.
Earlier, on 28 April, Minya Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Saeed Youssef Sabra along with Judges Ibrahim Walid and Talaat Gouda, referred the cases of 683 defendants – including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Chairman Mohamed Badie – to the Grand Mufti for ratification (for the death penalty), convicting them of “breaking into Adwa police station and threatening public peace”. The court also set 21 June for a final verdict to be passed regarding those cases.
The same court confirmed the death sentences against 37 other supporters of elected President Morsi. Their cases had been referred to the Grand Mufti in March 2014 for ratification, usually just a formality. The court commuted to life sentences (25 years) death sentences against 491 others convicted of “attacking police stations in the towns of Samalut and Matai in Minya governorate”.
In a statement, Gamal Heshmat, member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Shura Council (the group’s highest advisory body), said these sentences “put an end to the myth of independence of the judiciary, and confirms that these judgments are solely based on direct orders from the coup masterminds who deposed the legitimate elected President for personal interests”.
“There is no justice, no legal system in Egypt any more. Lawsuits are now turned into political battles, where the ruler seeks revenge against honourable patriotic citizens.”
He pointed: “These judgments are worthless… We will not be intimidated. We will not abandon the Revolution raging in the street, and which assures the whole world that there is no justice in Egypt”.
Heshmat added that “The nature of military coups is that they seek revenge through death sentences against members of all opposition, which is exactly what is happening in Egypt today.”
Human Right Watch has lambasted the ‘cursory mass trials’ and sentencing to death of hundreds of pro-democracy Egyptians that took but a few hours and where the court prevented defence lawyers from presenting their case.
Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Omari, Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, has strongly condemned the death sentences awarded to the supporters of Ikhwanul Muslimoon (Muslim Brotherhood) by an Egyptian ‘court’. He termed it as continuation of the chain of worst decisions in human history and a gross violation of the demands of justice.
In a statement, Maulana Omari said the judge who pronounced sentences to the 683 people, including the Murshid-e Aam (chief) of Ikhwanul Muslimoon Dr Mohammad Badie is the same who had awarded death sentences to 528 other supporters of Ikhwan one month ago. These two ‘judgements’ clearly prove that General Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi, who unjustly and illegally toppled the democratically elected government of Dr. Mohamad Morsi last year, now wants to strengthen his illegitimate regime by killing the servants of Islam through fake courts. Maulana Omari said that trampling of democratic values, toppling of a democratically elected government through illegal means and then awarding brutal punishments to the people who raise their voice for truth and justice are unimaginable in today’s world.
Maulana Omari urged the United Nations and human rights organisations of the world to strongly protest against this brutality and stop the Egyptian government from these inhuman acts of revenge.
He said it is very surprising that the Egyptian court has not shown any seriousness – neither in the latest judgment nor in the past one. Rather, the cases were tried summarily and death sentences were awarded to hundreds of people. This has surprised the West also. Even if the arrested people had committed a ‘crime’ by protesting, how this large-scale death punishment can be justified.
The Jamaat leader expressed solidarity with all the righteous people who are facing the onslaught of General Al-Sisi in Egypt and assured them that sympathies of all justice- and democracy-loving people are with them and they all are praying to Allah for their victory.
All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, condemned the reckless and wholesale death sentences issued in Egypt against another set of 683 political opponents of the putschist regime which toppled the democratically elected President of Egypt last July and has since continued to break one world record after another in persecution of its political opponents. The same Egyptian judge, after a summary trial, had earlier sent 528 political detainees to the gallows only a month ago in a case of political protest and attack on a police station in which one police officer was reportedly killed.
Mushawarat forcefully condemned this judicial murder in Egypt under an illegitimate government. Mushawarat President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan requested human rights organisations all over the world, especially the UN and EU human rights commissions, to take note of the blatant violations of human rights being committed by the Egyptian putschist government and to take it to the World Court of Justice and to boycott it internationally.
The US has also urged Egypt to stop mass trials and sentencing of its nationals. “The United States is deeply troubled by the continued use of mass trials and sentencing in Egypt, and particularly by today’s death sentence against 683 defendants,” White House spokesperson Jay Carney was quoted as saying in a statement on 28 April.
“We urge the Egyptian government to end the use of mass trials, reverse this and previous mass sentences, and ensure that every citizen is afforded due process.”
“Today’s verdict, like the one last month, defies even the most basic standards of international justice,” Carney said. “A fair and transparent criminal justice system free of intimidation and political retribution is an important part of any democracy, and the Egyptian people deserve no less.”
Washington has partially lifted its freeze on assistance to Egypt, enacted after Morsi’s removal, with plans to deliver 10 Apache helicopters and some $650 million in military aid this year.