Politics

Egypt’s ex-president Mohamed Morsi sentenced to death

May 24, 2015

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An Egyptian court has sentenced the ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death, for his part in a mass jailbreak in 2011. Morsi was among more than 100 defendants ordered by a court on Saturday, to face the death penalty.

The verdict, by judge Shaaban el-Shami, was announced on Saturday in a Cairo court, where Morsi was also facing charges of espionage. As is customary in passing capital punishment, the death sentence on Morsi, and more than 100 others, will be referred to the country’s top Muslim theologian, or mufti, for his non-binding opinion. [1]

He ruled for only a year before mass protests spurred, then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, overthrow him in July 2013. The people of Egypt were extremely unhappy with his divisive policies.

Inside the dock, Morsi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood group chanted, “Down with military rule!” after the judge read out the ruling against him.

Morsi's supporters took to the streets in protest after he was given a 20-year jail sentence in April — Morsi’s supporters took to the streets in protest after he was given a 20-year jail sentence in April

There has been widespread condemnation of this verdict worldwide. Mohamed Soudan, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Al Jazeera the decision was “farcical”.

“They’re insisting on issuing these verdicts against anyone who participated in the January 25 Revolution … all of the verdicts fail to meet international standards of law … they are farcical and will be dismissed as a failing of the coup,” said Soudan.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was also critical of the statement.

Human rights group Amnesty International, said the trial was a “charade” and based on “void procedures”.

“Condemning Mohamed Morsi to death after more grossly unfair trials shows a complete disregard for human rights … he was held for months incommunicado without judicial oversight and that he didn’t have a lawyer to represent him,” the organisation said in a statement.[2]