Global media are widely reporting that an Egyptian court has sentenced deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to death in connection with a 2011 prison break out during which hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members escaped four jails in Cairo as armed gangs took advantage of the chaos of the Arab Spring. According to a Washington Post report:
May 17, 2015 CAIRO — A Cairo court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death Saturday on charges of conspiring with foreign militants to break out of prison during Egypt’s uprising four years ago.
The verdict, which can be appealed, marks a stunning blow to the pro-democracy revolt that saw thousands of Egyptians rise up against an increasingly corrupt police state.
Security forces had arrested Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, during the 18-day rebellion in 2011, and he escaped from prison several days later. He was then elected president in the country’s first free and fair democratic elections in 2012, before Egypt’s military ousted the Islamist leader in a dramatic coup a year later.
Saturday’s verdict appeared to criminalize the events of the 2011 uprising against the regime of Hosni Mubarak, alleging that Morsi and fellow Islamists conspired with Hamas and Hezbollah operatives to escape incarceration and stage a violent revolt against the state.
Read the rest here.
Last month, the GMBDW reported that an Egyptian court had sentenced Morsi to 20 years in prison without parole for the killing of protesters in December 2012.
Reaction to the sentencing are already beginning to pour in from elements of the Global Muslim Brotherhood. A Middle Eastern news portal is reporting that Hamas has describe the court decision as “deplorable”:
May 16, 2015 Palestinian faction Hamas on Saturday slammed an Egyptian court verdict that sought capital punishment for a number of group members over charges of breaking out of an Egyptian jail in 2011.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described as ‘deplorable’ the court’s decision to refer 106 defendants, including two Hamas members, to the grand mufti, Egypt’s top religious authority, to consider possible death sentences against them.
‘It is a politicized case, and the verdict has tainted the record of the Egyptian judiciary,’ Abu Zuhri told Anadolu Agency.
He argued that defendants in the case ‘included martyrs, prisoners and members of the [Palestinian] resistance.’
Turkish media is reporting that President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has said that “Egypt is returning to the old Egypt”:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an slammed the West for not taking action against Egyptian rulers after a court sentenced the country’s deposed leader Mohammed Morsi to death over his role in a 2011 jail break.
‘Egypt is returning to old Egypt. You know what old Egypt is about, don’t you?’ Erdo?an asked supporters at a rally in ?stanbul on Saturday, held hours after the Egyptian court ruling was announced. ‘[Egyptian President Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi cannot be stopped.
The West does not take a position against the coup maker Sisi. While the West is abolishing the death penalty, they are just watching the continuation of death sentences in Egypt.
They [Western leaders and Sisi] meet and display solidarity.’
The United States has also criticized the Morsi sentencing.
We reported on legal proceedings against Dr. Morsi in August 2014 when we discussed Egyptian news agency reports that he had refused to answer a prosecutor’s questions about allegations that he leaked classified documents to Qatar via Al-Jazeera. We reported in February 2014 that Egyptian prosecutors had accused ousted President Mohammed Morsi of leaking state secrets to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. We reported in October 2013 that Dr. Morsi’s trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters was to begin that November.
In June 2012, the Egypt Independent published a revealing profile of Mohamed Morsi.
For a compendium of the extremist statements made by Morsi, go here.
